Remix Me. I'm going in...#1

(photo by mk30)

Alright, so it's not cover me, it's as good as.
I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised when the remix that grabbed me most on Four Tet's remixes/remixed double album was by... Four Tet. There's some great acts on here: Manitoba and Koushik both remix Hilarious Movie Of The 90's, Battles do a great job on A Joy, and Boom Bip's No More Mosquitoes is also ace. This is only CD2 as well - disc 1 features Hebden remixing Radiohead, Bloc Party, Beth Orton, Madvillain, Aphex Twin... I'm sure those'll come up soon.

But yes, my favourite remix of a Four Tet song was by Keiran Hebden himself. He does As Serious As Your Life, and to be frank, it's wonderful. The original, if you'll recall, has that great, ever-so-slightly funky guitar riff that's chopped up at times with that gloriously sparse beat. As per Hebden, there's not only melodies that ebb and flow in and out, but also completely random interjectory bleeps and the odd drum freak out.

The remix retains the funky but goes for almost an inversion of the riff transmuted to a great, indistinct bass sound, making it one of the best melodies on the disc. At times remixes can veer so much into trying to impress the remixers own sound onto a track that all semblance of melody and listenability is thrown out of the window. Not here though, this is one of the catchiest tunes on here, which says a great deal for Hebden's original work. It can't be easy taking a sound so vastly innovative as Four Tet's and keeping it accessible, but I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the man's a genius.

Listen out also for the free jazz trumpets (reminiscent of some of Manitoba's Up In Flames actually; think maybe Cherry Bomb?), and a whole host of other things. This man's good.

The Music
Four Tet - As Serious As Your Life (Four Tet remix)

The 'fo
Artist: Four Tet
Website: fourtet.net
Recommended: Remixes
Label: Domino
Buy: Amazon; Domino
More: Hype Machine; elbo.ws
If you like this you might like: Manitoba - Up In Flames
Tags: Four Tet; live; electronica; remix