IT'S THE RE...

Mick Boogie + Peter Bjorn & John - It Don't Move Me (feat. Kardinal Offishall, Donnis & Henok Achido)

Mick Boogie + Peter Bjorn & John - Last Night (feat. U-N-I)

So I guess Yeezy was the first to do it when he spat a sloppy freestyle over "Young Folks" on The Graduate mixtape a few years back. As sloppy as it was, Kanye singing - pre-autotune off key melodies over those bongos and that reverb-drenched whistling which were ubiquitous as fuck back in 06 did have it's charm. Fast forward to early this year and Drake perfected it with his remix...or cover? Or re-imagining? Wotevz, cause his well executed re-tinkering of PB&J's "Let's Call It Off" on So Far Gone, complete with catchy R&B hooks, presumably made a lot of his peers take notice. DJ-extroardinaire Mick Boogie definitely did and took it upon himself to curate a remix project of Peter Bjorn And John's Living Thing (though there's also the bonus of a re-worked version of "Amsterdam" from Writer's Block thrown in for good measure). Agitated, angular, sparse, percussive, rhythmic and just plain ol weird sometimes, I can't think of a better album to lend itself to the remix treatment. MCs and producers, pick apart the music and allow the pieces to fall back into place, albeit their way. Think Tetris as opposed to a 5000 piece puzzle. Sometimes things fit and sometimes they don't but it never stops making you wonder what could be next. And when the right pieces fit in the right places, you can't help but revel in giddy satisfaction.

[Mick Boogie Myspace]

[Peter Bjorn and John Myspace]

[Re-Living Thing can be downloaded free from Mick Boogie's website.]

Try this trick and spin it

ABX - Blue M.I.A. Day
I thought I hated mashups. Even the especially good ones only seem worth listening to a couple of times. There's a novelty factor to these that is interesting for a short period but often an exercise in gimmickery or mad DJ skillz. And that's cool, I mean, it's important; having a sense of humour and cheekily reworking music from the past and present. It's just that it's rare that one actually works as well as it should. The Grey Album was stupid. Did anyone else not like this? actually, probably lots considering the foreseeable audacity of appropriating The Beatles into a rap context. Maybe I'm just not a fan of Dangermouse, stylistically, even if the two musicians being mashed are terrific.

Anyway, a while ago here on RQ I was directed to a mysterious remixer by the name of ABX who combined Black Rob and Panda Bear to ridiculously good effect. If the point of a remix is to make a song new (putting yr own spin on it) or to further the original ideas into something better then putting two artists side by side would have similar reasons and effects. M.I.A. vs New Order is amazing, shiver-sending, mostly because both of the two songs are already amazing and the peaks and climaxes of each ride over top of eachother and double up. I want to learn how to mash things, too.

Like the other ABX Panda Bear/Black Rob, 'Blue M.I.A. Day' is from The Hood Internet. Elsewhere on this site is GZA vs Sonic Youth, Clipse vs Catpower, Edan vs Stereolab and M83 vs Rhianna (fuck yes!). I guess there could be a novelty factor to a lot of these combinations but the main concern is on good songs turning into even better songs.

Also, 'Blue Monday' has been remixed and fucked up in a variety of ways over the years.