Where The Highs Won't Bring You Down

"Normally people clap and cheer at this point," Lykke Li sniped, as she returned to the stage for her encore in Tripod, Dublin, last week.

She may be prone to prima donna behaviour but, with one of this year's strongest albums under her belt and a live show that more than does it justice, I guess she's entitled to have a high opinion of itself.

Wounded Rhymes is an album I keep returning to and discovering new favourites and there are a few great remixes keeping things interesting.

The Gold Panda remix of Sadness Is My Blessing pitches Lykke's lovelorn vocal against a glitchy lo-fi backdrop.

Lykke Li, "Sadness Is A Blessing (Gold Panda Remix)" by The FADER

Meanwhile, the Its Overture mix of I Know Places incorporates elements of Talking Heads' This Must Be The Place to superb effect. Doesn't it sound a bit like Miike Snow's Animal?

I Know Places (Its Overture Remix) by Its Overture

The new video for Sadness Is A Blessing is great also:

Got Plenty Of Fight Left

Wicklow woman Roisin Murphy has teamed up with Dutch dance duo Mason for a new track, Boadicea, from their new album They Are Among Us.

Pulsating electro beats underpin Murphy's silky vocals on this mid-tempo number, which comes flanked by this pretty excellent video that exemplifies the merits of power naps.



Previous efforts by Roisin have largely failed to win over the record-buying public but the DJ set remain ever loyal and, accordingly, there are several decent remix of the track doing the rounds. Pick of the bunch for me is Polydor's slinky house remix.

Mason Feat. Roisin Murphy - Boadicea (Polydor Remix) by Polydor

Mason feat. Roisin Murphy - Boadicea (Human Life Dub Remix) by Human Life

Mason Ft. Roisin Murphy - 'Boadicea' (Evil Nine Remix) by Evil Nine

One Track Mnd, One Track Heart...

Marina and the Diamonds has served up probably her most conventional video to date for her latest single, 'Oh No!'.

The track is one of my favourites from her album, 'The Family Jewels' and I kinda dig the pastel palette and comic book aesthetic in the video:



The song is one of the few that wasn't doing the rounds aeons before the album's release so hopefully it'll have a bit more impact than the largely ignored 'I Am Not A Robot' re-release.

Here's a few free remixes of the track, should you be in the market for a re-swizz or three. The David's Lyre one is my favourite.

Marina And The Diamonds - Oh No! (Active Child Remix) by thebubbleboy

Marina And The Diamonds - Oh No! (Grum Remix) by thebubbleboy

Marina And The Diamonds - Oh No! (David's Lyre Remix) by thebubbleboy

Just Like A Pill

An artist I've watched with keen interest since first being introduced to him by Illegal Tender in early 2009 is electro whizz-kid The Aspirins For My Children.

Eimear and I played some of his earlier tracks like 'Hollow Out' and 'Cutter' to death but then, after a clutch of great remixes for the likes of Frankmusik and Marina & The Diamonds, it all got very quiet and seemed as though The Aspirins had been, um, swallowed.

Thankfully, in the past couple of months, TAFMC (aka 23-year-old Daniel Barker) has returned with a clutch of new material, including collaborations with the rather brilliant Talking Pictures.

Here's a couple of my picks of his stuff but I'd seriously encourage delving into his Tumblr and SoundCloud account.

TAFMC featuring Talking Pictures - Someone Else by theaspirinsformychildren

TAFMC - Confusion Girl (FrankMusik Remix) by theaspirinsformychildren

The Good Natured - Your Body Is A Machine (The Aspirins For My Children Remix)

Clock This

After months of repeatedly surfacing on Youtube and promptly disappearing, the fabled Clock Opera remix of Marina and the Diamonds' 'I Am Not A Robot' has finally been given a legitimate airing over on Neon Gold.

Artfully re-hashing Marina's heartfelt vocal and setting it to a backdrop of dramatic synths, strings and piano, Clock Opera's Guy Connelly has created a masterpiece that somehow feels more like an alternative 'director's cut' edit of the original track than a remix.

Read the story of how the remix came to be and download the track here.



This is, hands down, my favourite of the multitude of Marina mixes.

Pit Of Diamonds

Usually I try to confine my remix festish to 'Stuck On Repeat' posts but, every now and again, a remix comes along that justifies a post all of its own.

Enter Passion Pit with their earth-shuddering 'Flex'd Rework' of Marina and the Diamonds' 'I Am Not A Robot'. The track sees Marina's original vocal manhandled by the Passion Pit boys and submerged in a sea of swirling synths and squelchy beats:



Brilliant.

Incidentally, it looks like Eimear and I will be making the journey down to Cork this weekend to see Passion Pit play at the latest Heineken Green Spheres gig. That's a distance further to travel than when we went to Carlow to see Marina play at a previous Green Spheres gig but I reckon it'll be worth it.

Oh. My. God.

I'm currently getting ready for some Stephen's Day silliness and my preparations are being soundtracked by a Marina & the Diamonds track on loop. Shocking, right?

Her forthcoming single 'Hollywood' has been remixed by English electro-pop wonderkids Fenech-Soler and the results are quite marvellous.

The re-swizz sees Marina's sprightly pop tune transformed into a housey club-monster, the 'Oh my god' breakdown in particular being a late contender for musical moment of the year.



Yum. Download the MP3 for free from the infallible Neon Gold.

Bouncing Back

After thwarting attempts to have his videos removed from Youtube, Aussie remix artist Pogo has bounced back with 'Upular', a remix using clips from the likely winner of the 2010 Best Animated Feature, Pixar's 'Up'.



I honestly think this is on par with 'Alice', the video that originally brought him to my attention.

Rub A Dub Dub

"Remixes are a gateway to new sounds." So says the lovely Platinum Jones, and I reckon he's not far wrong.

A few months back, Eimear introduced me to a rather excellent 'dub-step' remix of Ellie Goulding's 'Starry Eyed' by English producer Jakwob.

Jakwob has now re-swizzed Goulding's latest single 'Under the Sheets' and the results, once more, are slightly brilliant. I realise taking a fancy to house/dub remixes of chart-pop doesn't qualify me as a hardcore electro fiend. All I know is that I can't get enough of Jakwob's tracks and remixes right now.

Ellie Goulding - Under The Sheets (Jakwob Remix)



Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Jakwob Remix)



The Temper Trap - Fader (Jakwob Remix)



Click here to download a free MP3 of Jakwob's rather excellent remix of Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 'Heads Will Roll'.

Starstruck

Starsmith, the man responsible for transforming Ellie Goulding from a folksy warbler to an electropop minx, let slip a few weeks ago that he was working on a Lady Gaga remix.

It turns out the track in question was new single 'Bad Romance' and, perhaps as a tribute to all the Lady Gagas wandering the streets over the course of Hallowe'en weekend, he dropped the track last night.

The track is everything you might expect from the pairing: shimmery synths and spluttering beats underpinning Gaga's gargantuan hooks.



Lovely.

[via: Eimear]

XX Rated Love

Florence and the Machine and The xx have been responsible for two of my favourite albums of the year to date. As such, you can imagine the tidings of JOY that accompanied my discovery of a remix by The xx of Florence and the Machine's version of the Candi Staton classic 'You've Got The Love'.

Remarkably, this track not only lives up to my absurdly high expectations but practically pole-vaults over them. I can say with a considerable degree of certainty that this is one of my favourite tracks of the year.

Feast your ears:



Nice excuse to tinker around in Photoshop too.

Worth The Hassle

The video for Swedish singer Erik Hassle's first official release in these parts, 'Don't Bring Flowers', has surfaced.

Aside from some wince-inducingly melodramatic lyrics "Don't bring flowers after I'm dead/Save your givings for the living instead", it's a solid pop tune.

The video isn't especially exciting. It's basically just Erik, dressed in black, wandering around looking a bit mopey with a few mates:



What really flagged my attention about this release though is the remix that Erik has done with 'Box'N'Locks' singer, MPHO. I'm really enjoying this dearth of remixes featuring an opposite gendered singer's voice blended with the original vocal (see also: Miike Snow/Neon Hitch, Ellie Goulding/Samuel, Lykke Li/Drake).

Erik Hassle vs MPHO - Don't Bring Flowers:



I think MPHO's voice really complements Eriks and I think it fits with the lyrics to have a female vocal. As much as I love this remix, I reckon 'Hurtful' will be the track to crack Erik and his bizarre ginger afro into the charts.

'R' Is For Royksopp, Robyn, Robot, Remixes.

A couple of free remixes of 'The Girl & The Robot', courtesy of Stay Loose.

The Chateau Marmont Remix is a particular favourite of mine and was one of the tracks Liana and I played during our first DJ set at Soundcheck last week.

'Lily & The Robot' meanwhile, sees the original track being 'mashed up' with Lily Allen's 'Not Fair'. Lyrically, the two tracks fit together qute well and the transitions are pretty smooth.

Aces.

[Image: Royksopp]