Impassioned enthusiasm from guests around their chosen 5-track theme...
5:5:5: I.
Five singular remixes by Metronomy
as selected by Stephen Kin;Aesthetic
It always feels to me like Joseph Mount (aka Metronomy as remixer) approaches remixes with the same energy as he would his own original productions, no half measures, fully embracing the re-interpretation as an adopted Metronomy production, effectively re-producing the entire track, threading all manner of carefully designed elements, personalising everything, from the sweetest of synth lines to perfectly installed harmonies. And those vocal complements really shine. Needless to say, there are others who remix with such vigorous passion and attention to detail, but crafting such beautifully bespoke harmonies to match, now that’s something.
Such unreserved commitment to ‘the remix’ soars, unmistakably Metronomy in character and still wholly embracing, sympathising, assimilating some essence of the original versions. So with my Metronomy-adoring stall loosely set, I invite you to feast on five remarkable tracks as cast through Joseph Mount’s magnificently discerning remix filter.
Charlotte Gainsbourg - 5:55 (Metronomy Remix) [Because Music]
Metronomy’s soporific pop version of Charlotte Gainsbourg’s 5:55 is a thing to behold - and the inspiration behind the naming of this pentagonally enthusing 5:5:5: series.
Boldly stamped re-imagining is in the Metronomy remixing genes. The simplest bassline stomp beckons synth squeals and Gainsbourg’s breathy sleep-deprived chant. Never over-complicating, pleasingly concise, arpeggiating melodics and rhythmic licks sum to drowsy ecstasy.
The Chanteuse’ original is considerately, but firmly revolutionised without hint of hesitation; the ode to insomnia, takes a radically different tone, re-fashioned with intuitive panache.
Roots Manuva - Awfully Deep (Lambeth Blues Metronomy Remix) [Big Dada]
Soft swung, voltage injected synth-pop groovement, sympathetically settled for sincere Roots Manuva’ing.
Rodney Smith’s stark psychological lament is nursed to a glorious woozy g-funk, tentative guitar n’ bass licks are enriched with swelling electrics, Mount’s compassionate wails lend support, stretching toward duet...
And while space is respectfully reserved for Rodney’s sharp straight-up verse, the chorus explodes with vocoder-harmonising call-responses, and a rallying synth-funk punch.
Metronomy - Loving Arm (Metronomy Remix) [Because Music]
Self-reflective vocoder conversion, washed with mournful refrains and refrigerated tones.
There’s something very satisfying about a good self-remix, original ideas channelled to different zones providing fresh context.
Metronomy’s auto-remix of Loving Arm broods and buzzes with a heavily vocoded melancholy, revealing alternate light and insight into a parallel creative process.
The straight clocking beat steers the slowly intensifying layered synth lines toward a potent, pensive, exhilarating version.
Diplo - Newsflash (Metronomy Remix) [Big Dada]
Lurching beats n’ synth incite killer vox-fired digi riddim.
Metronomy’s version of Diplo’s killer synth-ragga cut doesn’t hold back, and seldom have faux horns worked so hard, backed by guttural squelch-growls and elevating ‘verbed hi-synth drama.
Trademark fitted harmonies sympathetically slur behind Sandra Melody’s fierce alerts, frantically hyped by a’rattlin drums through a kinda jungle-meets-ragga-synth-pop warning, vying with the original Diplo Rhythm for the crown of utmost urgency.
Young Knives - Weekends and Bleak Days (Hot Summer) (Metronomy Remix) [Transgressive]
A willfully jagged re-mold; masterfully tuned-out, disobedient post-pop.
Shaking, loosening, confounding the angular Young Knives sound and bringing a jaunty, gently anarchic DIY pop sensibility, another bout of lo-fi jerky synth horns, jostling here against soft punk grit.
A thread of dissonant rebellion jolts and disorientates the harmonious hot summer yelps, leaving a triumphantly awkward transformation.
A fresh remix by Metronomy is particular cause for excitement around this stereo, often followed by obsessive repeat plays, and it’s the idiosyncratic, unpredictably brushed pop reflections of Mount’s remix work that really gets me, as true as ever in these five tracks, markedly varied at root but united by an ingenious Metronomic radiance...
More 5:5:5: next month - another impassioned outpouring from a music obsessive around their own 5-sided theme.
