Weekly mp3 #151: Dntel - (This Is) The Dream Of Evan & Chan (Safety Scissors Spilled My Drink Mix)

Submitted by jet jaguar on Tue, 04/05/2011 - 17:00
in

Jimmy Tamborello aka Dntel

Proto-future garage (ha!) with the great vocals of Erlend Øye. One of my fave tracks of 2002, improbably available online in 2011 thanks to the classic music-finding site Epitonic having a bit of a re-launch.

I really love the original version of this song, but this is also one of the more inventive remixes I've come across and the results are great fun. The original's shoegazer aesthetic is replaced with a very stop-start, UKG feel. Pitched up beats pop and clack in a jaunty rhythm, with some hoover bass lending weight. Tiny distorted slivers and stripped bare synth parts from the original track come and go abruptly. Erlend Øye's vocals are a similarly fragmented take on Ben Gibbard's dream-recall sing-along - you'd be fairly hard pressed to guess where the next line is going to land, melodically or rhythmically, and Øye changes and ditches lyrics as he sees fit.

All the remixes on this pretty superlative single take a different approach to remixing the original track:

  • this version replaces the vocals with a new singer;
  • Barbara Morgenstern turns it into a duet, singing a new melody with Gibbard's original vocal part serving as harmony line in the chorus;
  • Superpitcher uses only the vocals with new instrumentation;
  • and Lali Puna do an instrumental mix.

My first weekly MP3 was another Dntel track, so I won't go on about him, but he's one of my favourite producers. Safety Scissors is another American solo producer and Erlend Øye is a Norwegian who lives in Berlin. Some of his projects include The Kings of Convenience and The Whitest Boy Alive.