Mansion

In late-November, a post entitled “The Machine is Just Hype”, appeared on Toronto-based music blog Salacious Sound. The post was an incredibly well-written look at the pros and the cons of music sites such as Hypemachine, Ebo.ws and others, that compile charts of the newest and most “popular” songs, aggregating songs from dozens of music blogs and allowing the public to vote on songs they “love” the most. The overall message is that while sites like Hypemachine can be helpful for music fans to discover new music that they might not have heard otherwise, we should take them with a grain of salt, because the blogs that they draw the songs from can be influenced by record labels, producers, promoters, the DJs themselves, etc. Another unfortunate side-effect of these sites, is that too often too many mediocre mashups of mainstream artists rise to the top. If you need proof that the public’s music tastes have dumbed down, look no further than the Biggie vs. Miley Cyrus mashup, that topped the Hypemachine charts for several weeks. As the Salacious Sound post points out though, “I know to some of you, you can’t fathom why someone would listen to Miley or Britney, but the truth is…they outnumber us.”

It would be impossible to write a review of the year in remixes and mashups, without mentioning the tragic passing of a legendary DJ and true musical innovator. On August 28th, 2009, Adam Goldstein (better known as DJ AM) was found in his New York apartment after he overdosed on drugs. To say that his life was a difficult one would be a gross understatement. A story in The New York Times that appeared shortly after his death, chronicled Goldstein’s troubled life, from his childhood with abusive parents and in orphanages, to his struggle with alcohol, drugs and obesity, which continued even when he was hitting it big playing star-studded Hollywood parties (even briefly dating Nicole Ritchie), and his inner demons that he suffered after narrowly walking from his brush with death in 2008, when a plane he was on with close friend Blink-182’s Travis Barker crashed, killing crew members and two other passengers. I wasn’t really familiar with the DJ’s work until I heard his remix of Weezer’s “Troublemaker” last year, but he influenced a great number of DJs and other artists, many of whom wrote touching tributes on their personal blogs or websites. If you’ve never heard any of his stuff before, I would highly encourage you to go out and download his Fix Your Face Vol. 2 – Coachella ‘09 live mix (featuring Barker on drums), which you can get here.

But never fear, it wasn’t all bad news for fans looking for exciting new remixes and mashups and fresh-faced DJs. There were great remixes and mashups out there for fans of house, electro-rock, old-school, dance, trance, dubstep, post-punk, reggae, indie rock, and every other music genre imaginable to discover. This year I discovered Toronto’s burgeoning club scene of producers and DJs, which everyone from local media (NOW Magazine ran a story entitled “The Future Sound of Toronto”, featuring AutoErotique, Mansion, vitaminsforyou, among others) to the international community (Thunderheist’s Grahm Zilla’s official remix of Santigold’s “L.E.S. Artistes”, FoulHouse’s remix of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Heads Will Roll” received mad love from the blogosphere, the mouse-helmet-wearing Deadmau5 playing sold-out shows and festivals around the world), finally started to pick up on. Meanwhile, not a weekend has gone by this year, without my Facebook being flooded with event invites to sweet club nights at Wrongbar by co-owner/DJ and Play De Record head honcho Nasty Nav. I also got to see the Mansion duo of Barletta and Violca spin tracks for a packed crowd on the Gladstone Hotel’s wooden dancefloor during CMW, Famous Players DJing the post-You Say Party! We Say Die! party at the delightfully scuzzy El Mo and Fraggle Rock DJs playing to the hipsters at the Drake Hotel into the early mornings during NXNE. Here’s my look back at the best remixes and mashups of 2009; some of which you’ve probably heard before, others will be completely new, and all the artists, bands and DJs involved. Feel free to comment, and share your favourites from this year!

The Return Of MSTRKRFT

Welcome back gentlemen, we missed you. After putting out their debut album of original material in 2006, The Looks, and having a number of stellar remixes credited to their name (more about that below), many feared that Toronto’s MSTRKRFT would fall prey a fate similar to Jesse F. Keeler’s former band, Death From Above 1979. But while Jesse’s ex-BFF Sebastien Grainger, put out a pretty enjoyable rock album with his new band, JFK was working with his partner-in-crime Al-P on MSTRKRFT’s follow-up album. The result? Fist Of God, which received mixed reviews from the critics (usually centered around the atrocious cover artwork), but made an impact where it counted most – in the clubs. You couldn’t go on a dancefloor in Toronto this year without hearing the duo’s party-starting anthem “Bounce” (featuring vocals from rapper Noreaga and Thunderheist’s Isis Salam) booming from the speakers, and any self-respecting DJ would be a fool not to slip it into their set in at least some capacity. Sure, the lyrics ain’t exactly Shakespeare (”All I do is party, uh, uh, uh”) and the throbbing electro-rock beat feels like something that those Justice fellows could have came up with in their sleep – but when you have several drinks in your system and you hear that infectiously catchy chorus, does it even matter? And while practically everyone tried their hand at remixing it – including the likes of The Bloody Beetroots, Felix Cartel and A-Trak, it was the hometown Mansion that turned out the best version. How do you like them apples Mr. Grainger?

Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?

Speaking of comebacks, this year also saw the return of Metric, who put out their fourth full-length album. The Polaris Prize-nominated Fantasies, finally saw Emily Haines & Co. firmly leave behind their status as Toronto indie darlings, and embrace their newfound status as bona fide Canadian rock stars. And though there were no remixes that stood like quite like MSTRKRFT’s redo of “Monster Hospital” from 2006’s Live It Out, the album’s spiky guitars, synth flourishes, and Haines’ massive sing-a-long choruses, practically begged for other DJs’ interpretations. The first out of the gate was Rio de Janeiro party-starters The Twelves – you know them as the duo that remixed the Black Kids’ “I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You” – who gave “Help I’m Alive” a French electro-house makeover. Next British DJ Adam Freeland remixed “Sick Muse”, throwing in some big club beats and stretching the original into a song that clocked in at just over six minutes. However the title of most unexpected (and arguably best) remix of a Metric song would have to go to none other than Mike Shinoda. Yep, you read that right – that Mike Shinoda, who made his name as a multi-instrumentalist in (*cringes*) Linkin Park, and then had his rap side-project Fort Minor. On his remix of “Gold Guns Girls”, he ups the song’s tempo, runs Haines’ vocals through some filter to give them a cool stuttering effect, and punctuates the song with gunshot sounds just for good measure. Shinoda used this the remix as the theme for his art exhibition “Glorious Excess (Dies)”, and it will be released officially by the band at a later date. And while I’ve yet to see Metric play in Toronto – despite numerous opportunities – the fact that so many want to remix their songs, suggest that they aren’t going away anytime soon.

It’s Hard To Be Hip-Hop

First off, I would like to apologize for featuring that EP of godawful Grizzly Bear/Lil Wayne mashups on the Lamb this year – I have no idea what I was thinking at the time. A far better use of the plinking keyboards in Grizzly Bear’s widely-celebrated “Two Weeks” (which my roommate is still convinced were ripped off from “Still D.R.E.”), was in a mashup by prolific Chicago-based outfit The Hood Internet, with Dead Prez’s “Hip-Hop”. Another Hood Internet fave from the year (The Mixtape Vol. 4 collects their best mashups from this year, download it for free here) was their “Bring The Tabloid Sores”, which took Public Enemy’s old-school classic “Bring The Noise”, and mixed it with the instrumental from HEALTH’s “Tabloid Sores”. Thanks to my friend Leah, I found out about the completely unknown Hawkins’ stellar mashup of Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks” and Brand New’s “Jesus Christ”, which stood out to me from the glut of half-assed mashups floating around on the Internet. One of my most-played songs in iTunes was N.A.S.A.’s “Strange Enough”, featuring guest vocals from Karen O, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and Fatlip, and French DJ/producer Mr. Oizo’s remix was perfectly suited for party playlists. For something a little less-mainstream, Ludacris broke his recent musical silence, to contribute some swift-tongued verses to the “Updated Roster” remix of the Cool Kids’ “Pennies” (which appeared on the duo’s Gone Fishing mixtape). There were also a number of notable remixes of songs by Toronto electro-rap duo Thunderheist (who recently announced they’d be taking an indefinite break to work on their respective solo projects, and played their last show at the Mod Club) – New York’s Eli Escobar gave “Sweet 16″ some love, as did Mansion (get both versions here, and Sammy Bananas remixed “Nothing 2 Step 2″. More hip-hop remixes and mashups are listed below, and check out past Tuesday Twelves for more cool stuff.

Strange Bedfellows

“Good people. And they both have the word “fuck” in their names”
- No Age’s Dean Spunt, on the band’s decision to remix songs by Holy Fuck and Fucked Up

This year I got the chance to talk to the No Age drummer and his bandmate, guitarist and lead singer Randy Randall, when they were in town for several shows during the North By Northeast Music Festival. The L.A. noise-rock duo had recently remixed perennial Toronto hardcore punk favourites Fucked Up’s religion-skewering “No Epiphany”, and earlier in the year, Holy Fuck’s “Lovely Allen” (they also contributed a remix of Bloc Party’s “Better Than Heaven”, to the otherwise-lackluster Intimacy Remixed). While you might not have expected a band like No Age to have collaborated with these artists – especially Fucked Up – their extracurricular activities highlighted a trend this year of unexpected artists reworking less-than-conventional songs. As Randall points out, the “big drum beats” aren’t always necessary, and not all remixes are imagined and created with the intention of getting it played at clubs. Another example this year was San Antonio’s mysterious one man show Mexicans With Guns remixing Edmonton’s Faunts’ “Feel.Love.Thinking.Of.”. One of the best remixes you never heard this year, it was successful because the DJ draws and highlights the electronic elements from the original, without succumbing to knob-fiddling bombast or laptop overkill. The result is awash with ambient textures; shoegaze-sounding guitars, skittering synths, and Rob Batke’s subtly-looped vocals (”This is how I feel now for my love, and I can’t let go what I’m thinking of”). Some of these more unusual collaborations also appeared on compilation albums. Jason Forrest remixed “No Cars Go”, from none other than Montreal’s Arcade Fire, for the Merge Records 20th anniversary compilation. The lone rapper to appear on the stellar Dark Was The Night: A Red Hot Compilation (which was flecked by many of the biggest names in indie rock/pop), Nova Scotia’s Buck 65, took Sufjan Steven’s “You Are The Blood” and turned it into a showcase for his own dark and dense rhymes.

And The Winner Is…

My favourite remix of the year? Hands down, Skream’s remix of La Roux’s “In For The Kill”. As this song was thisclose was to making my list of top songs, its a no-brainer that I give it the number one spot on this roundup of the year’s best. It’s rare that a remix is actually better than the original (Erol Alkan’s remix of Bloc Party’s “Romantic Rights” comes to mind), but this sped-up version by U.K. dubstep producer Skream, certainly falls into that category. I’ve already raved about it on the Lamb already, so there’s not much more I can add, so consider this a memo to check it out if you haven’t yet. And just when you think its over, wait until the song hits the 4:10 mark, and prepare to have your mind blown.

Other Remixes Worth Checking Out:

Amanda Bl – “Might Like You Better (Blaqstarr Remix)”
The Dead Weather – “Treat Me Like Your Mother (Diplo Remix)”
Drake feat. Kanye West, Lil Wayne & Eminem – “Forever (Dr. Rosen Rosen Remix)”
Florence & The Machine – “You’ve Got The Love (The xx Remix)”
HEALTH – “Before Tigers (CFCF Remix)”
Rye Rye – “Bang (WTF I Asked for a Kuduro Remix by Buraka Som Sistema)”
The Very Best – “Warm Heart of Africa (Architecture In Helsinki Remix)”