p. 28EDM COLUMN

THE DROP

[THE WORD ON EDM/DANCE MUSIC] WITH NIAMH “IL VAMPIRO” MCCOOL

[NIAMH.DOLFI.MCCOOL@GMAIL.COM]

Ahhhhh, Pop Remixes. The ubiquitous mainstream song tweak, popping up everywhere on SoundCloud and Bandcamp, something whipped out by DJs to spice up the mix. Remixes are not new by any stretch of the imagination and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly who started the practice and where; hip hop, disco, dub and dancehall were all involved in making Remixing what it is today. So today, I am going to take a little look at some of the remix trends I’ve noticed in the EDM community and explore the philosophy that underpins that curiously ubiquitous thing: the pop remix.

Visual by Niamh Dolfi-McCool

hi hats are added, transforming the song into a trance tune. This style of remix is often called a ‘flip’ or an ‘edit’ EG Stand Up Tall Baile/UKG Edit. What I find interesting about X Song as X Genre remixes are their ability to make unfamiliar genres accessible, as they flip the exclusive and somewhat snobbish attitude of some music subcultures. What I mean by this is that Pop music is often considered to be ‘lowbrow’ art, regularly dismissed as vapid, generic, non-genuine and technically subpar, particularly by music nerds (I am pretty guilty of this too). When an artist remixes a pop song, transforming it into a different genre, they are attributing value to it; the remix becomes part of the music subculture. This exposes sounds and subcultures previously unfamiliar to people, and it also connects the subgenre to the wider music world in a genuine and sometimes moving way. What do I mean by Pop Remix? I am referring to the remixing, editing or ‘flips’ of songs which are, or have been, extremely popular. Songs that are instantly recognisable and have an iconic or nostalgic quality. A classic example of the Pop Remix is the bountiful crop of Toxic by Britney Spears remixes that have appeared over the last couple of years. There was a time around 2018/2019 when it was difficult to not hear some version of this iconic tune on the dance floor. There are a number of reasons why Pop Remixes are popular. The most obvious being that for smaller creators, audiences are more likely to click on, or respond to, something they already recognise than an unfamiliar original piece. The Pop Remix also has a distinct ‘internet’ flavour. Eduardo Navas in his book

Remix Theory says a remix is: “...a global activity consisting of the creative and efficient exchange of information made possible by digital technologies…[and] supported by the practice of cut/copy & paste”. The referential nature of the internet is the perfect breeding ground for the Pop Remix. There is a style of remix that I am going to clumsily call ‘X Song as X Genre’. X Song as X Genre is pretty similar to your standard remix, in that the original melody or vocals is kept (mostly) unchanged but the production is completely changed. Like D v D remix of Naughty Girl by Beyonce, the vocals remain, PAGE 18while a driving heavy kick, synthy arpeggio, and crisp agitate PAGE 18

FKA Twigs in collaboration with Dazed Beauty, AVANTgarden and MUA Lyle creates beauty from Rubbish

Similarly, the ‘mash-up’ retains the quality to recontextualise and change the meaning of popular music. The mash-up is a pretty simple concept: combining two or more songs together. The unique quality of the mash-up comes from its ability to alter the meaning of the original pieces by combining them. Take Computer Jah, where VLVT Jones chops and combines Computer Love by Zapp with The Going Is Rough by Cocoa Tea, creating a unique mix of ‘80s computer pop and dub. Typically, the mash-up goes in one of two directions: combining songs that have an adjacent meaning or energy; or combining songs that are completely different from each other. With the former, the two (or more) songs emphasise and exaggerate each other, like DJ Gaylord’s bonkers mash up of Lady Gaga’s Lovegame and Crazy Frog. For the latter, you get interesting and unlikely combos like Kylie Vs Ludacris – I can’t lick you out of my head. There is a fair amount of criticism against remixes. Some of them fair, others not so much. Criticisms against big artists remixing lesser-known artists works and gaining all the credit is an issue. There are also the cases of individuals being remixed ‘out’ of their own songs like in the remix of Peng Black Girls where Amia Brave was cut out and ‘replaced’ with the more wellknown Jorja Smith. Remixing decisions like these should be criticised; they perpetuate the idea that there is only ‘one spot’ for women, particularly BIPOC women, in the music industry and that they are replaceable. The most popular critique I hear is: “Make something new”. Ironically, I think it captures one of the reasons why remixes, particularly the pop remix, continues to grow. It’s not really possible to make something new, not entirely, but by playing @bmamagand transforming pieces, artistic innovation can occur.

As mentioned before, as pop music is viewed as ‘low-brow’ art, it is not uncommon for it to be referred to as ‘trashy’ or ‘trash’. This point may be a little out there but hold on. In the wake of incomprehensible environmental destruction, climate change and the crushing weight of Capitalist consumption, our attitude or philosophy towards ‘trash’ or ‘garbage’ is (hopefully) changing. In the paper Recycling Traffic

WWINGS WARWARWAR Charli XCX ‘Lets Ride’ Remix Album Cover

Noise: Transforming Sonic Automobilities For Revalue and Well Being (which is a more interesting read than it sounds), the idea of recycling noise is discussed. The paper suggests that noise can be viewed as an intangible waste resource, which can be transformed or ‘recycled’. I think that pop music can be conceptualised in the same way. Often considered to be ‘trash’ due to the sheer quantity and disposable ‘one hit wonder’ nature of pop music, artists use this music that has been disregarded after having its moment in the limelight, pulling it apart and using the sounds like a paint palette. Remixes like WWINGS WARWARWAR and Ssaliva’s Believer are great examples of this. They

DJ Blanket mixing at Femme EDM at Gang Gang Café

are unrecognisable to the originals. They sound new despite being made from mega popular songs: Charli XCX’s Let’s Ride in WWINGS’ case and Justin Beiber’s Baby in Ssaliva’s. “Transforming into sound is made of giving value to something that is not valued. This opens up the possibility for people to feel something new, that is, for their perception to be transformed.” What’s Happenings in Canberra??? The scene’s still recovering from the big CV-19 and continues to be limited by social distancing restrictions. But rejoice! You can now dance in clubs and bars in Canberra; a true privilege!.On the 7th of March, techno artists, Made in Paris, have an album release at ONE22 (formally Mr Wolf). sideway Bar will be opening up Saturday nights soon, kicking off with Sauti Systems crew from Sydney. Featuring R.Soze, Santoro, Kenfo, Juju-J and Boosie there’s a reason that tickets sold out in 24 hours and it’s not the limited capacity. Gang Gang Café has been holding some gigs; keep your eyes peeled for the next Femme EDM, the last one was incredible.

KLOUDII Following the release of three singles,

BUT Y THO? EP Canberra-based musician and producer [ ] Kloudii has just dropped an EP but y tho? Aka Tanner Clark, Kloudii’s latest is a relatively adventurous five-song fusion of electro-pop with eclectic atmospheric pop. But it’s perhaps more electro than pop. As well as knowing his way around some no doubt nifty software and softsynths and hardsynths and whatever else, Kloudii reveals himself to be an artist who is not afraid to adopt some old school textures—enter the guitar, and some quite dense distortion with that guitar too—and this gives the EP a level of grit and grime that even the most high-functioning of synths would have trouble competing with. Opening with Maybe, Kloudii persuasively presents a cocktail of amiable melodic turns with just a dollop of emo semi-angst. The rhythmic pull here is emblematic of most of the EP—eschewing straight tempo lines for the occasional drops and the jittery jumps and staccato slashings kind of works when listening to the entire set. The second track Won’t Catch Me (Ft. Andrew Campbell) ventures into a lazy, restrained feel, with a few surprise chord changes and a mood spicing guitar-like solo. I say guitar-like because, well, one never knows; it just might be a splendid-at-mimicry piece of technology after all. But Tanner appears to know what he’s doing in both realms— the virtual and the real. And this EP quite convincingly allows the vocal performances to hover above the sonic environment judiciously, neither fighting it out with the computing power nor attempting to take over, but instead landing safely in its arms. It makes for a cohesive congress of seemingly disparate components. The electro elements only sprint off on slightly deenergizing tangents sometimes. For the most part, we are in the quite capable hands of an artist we will, undoubtedly, be hearing a lot more of in that very near virtual slash real future.

VINCE LEIGH