Evening Fog Special: The Knocks Remix Goldroom

The Knocks gave us a real treat with their remix of Goldroom feat. Mereki Beach's "Only You Can Show Me." It's a bouncing disco ditty with some fading in and out and a sing-along vocal hook. Per the usual with the Manhattan duo, (who themselves admit "Hey, we got the magic"), the synthesizer that carries the beat has such an edible texture. This ain't no fluff.

Goldroom, aka LA's Josh Legg, has made quite a name for himself both in and outside the blogosphere in recent months. Be sure to give his mixes a listen as the above link, too.

Bass Kick of the Week: Random Access Memories (Vanderway Edit)

Something new on Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" for our ears to chew on this morning. The Versailles duo has always understood that good chords make good dance music. And Vanderway of the L'ordre collective understands that fat bass and a well-timed hi-hat make good funk.

Can't Look Away: Maribou State Remixes George Maple's "Fixed"

In art, the impressionists reminded us that the sensation of viewing can often feel more real than realistic portrayal. That is to say, they suggest an image, or an emotion, and allow the viewer to make up the distance.

From the sweeping arpeggio that opens Maribou State's remix of George Maple's "Fixed," I couldn't help but feel a faint touch of Maurice Ravel and impressionist music. Which is to say, for me, that the remix suggests an emotion otherwise inexpressible. And there it is  - one of the most standout tracks I've heard all year. The Londoners' remix flows like water at play, or a potential lover sipping red wine on a train as the other disembarks.

You Know My Steez: Darwin Deez

Look at those curly locks! Asheville's Darwin Deez is on a transatlantic tour following the release of Songs for Imaginative People. The album itself melts Why?'s Yoni Wolf and Passion Pit's early multi-layer fanfare into the same pot. Fun to listen to? Absolutely. Kitchy, yes, but all the same, the Wesleyan graduate throws it all out there with a self-awareness and intentionality still lacking in the post-naughties psych-pop niche of the electronic ecosystem. We neither cheer on nor hold back these antics; Prom Sawyer just wants to be his friend.

I've also thrown in a treat of  remix of "You Can't Be My Girl" by the Vienna-based DJ Cid Rim.

Mullaha's "Carried Away" Remix

From Merriam-Webster Inc.:

vol-ume (noun)\ˈväl-yəm, -(ˌ)yüm\

1. mass or representation of mass in art or architecture
2. the degree of loudness or the intensity of a sound


I'm going to increase the volume in both these senses of the word. Prom Sawyer has been outside the blogosphere collecting specimens for several days.

Here's something to get me started. London-based DJ and producer Mullaha has a super fun remix of Passion Pit's "Carried Away." Plenty of layers here to keep it interesting, and some really tasty chordwork going on behind the scenes. I knew when I heard this that it was the electropop diamand I've been digging for.

Spring Comes Early

I hear the violoncello, ('tis the young man's heart's complaint,)

I hear the key'd cornet, it glides quickly in through my ears

It shakes mad-sweet pangs through my belly and breast

I hear the chorus, it is a grand opera

Ah this indeed is music - this suits me. 

-"Song of Myself," Walt Whitman 

(public domain by now, I think)

Prom Sawyer's ready for spring - I can feel the crunch of snow softening beneath my feet. There are afternoons ahead of us on the Electric Mississippi for us to behave like the people we see on album covers, perhaps painting ourselves, flying kites in fields, loving the supersaturated pastoral around us. It really does exist, I'm pretty sure.

Here are the songs that, I think, will help me get to those places. F y f e's recent release "St Tropez" sounds like it might not be the happiest at first, but I guarantee it'll thaw out any winter heart. The tone on that keyboard and the Beirut-esque horn line that comes in during the chorus sound best, to my ears, during the warmer seasons.

"Darling, you know I won't keep you waiting..."



And then there's "Pretty Boy" by Vancouver's Young Galaxy, reworked by Peaking Lights. This is magical - the apt comparison I've heard several bloggers mention is stars and fireworks and glowing little pieces in the night sky. Doesn't this just make you want to run around outside? Two weeks, my friends, and I suspect we'll have the weather for it. 

Soul Clap: Snakehips

Prom Sawyer's got a special place in his heart for soul that makes you clap - Sam & Dave on stage making it rain indoors.  Perhaps as a tip of the hat to the pioneering Harlem dancer, London-based Snakehips keeps dropping beats to make you clap your hands above your head.

I hadn't heard the rework of Mariah Carey's "Bliss" before, but it ranks up there with the best of fellow U.K. soul-reworker Star Slinger's work. What I've always loved about this style is superimposed uppers and downers - like Vodka Red Bull, or the Grinnell staple or yore Blast Loco - the halftime bass and echoey synths slow you down, but the tight snares speed you up. 

Now the Wild Belle remix has got to be the best I've heard of the oft-spun track. Those hefty octavized bass lines come over the beat like Prom Sawyer's favorite overlooked '90s subgenre, G-Funk. I have no doubt you could drive slowly to this.

But the cake-taker is Snakehips' most recent track, released three weeks ago. Bondax set a high bar with the original. But like Kevin Barnes says: here comes that soul clap.  I'll take anything that starts with piano chords and a claptrack, but when that drop hits... 

"She's a diamond, I'm the rough."

Down to Love?

You might look to tomorrow with great anticipation - Romeo trotting through the dark, the balcony around the next corner. Or your sentiments might be akin to Jeru the Damaja's - "my name ain't Puff, I ain't got time to waste."

Either way, February the 14th cometh, and Prom Sawyer decided to try to make a heart out of beer caps. I didn't drink enough beers first.

But the Electric Mississippi's been needing a dance track with love in the title. Ain't no fiends coming in between Henry Krinkle and his dreams. The Wellington, South Florida producer has ambitions, and if statistics mean anything, he's realizing them now. His remix of Hot Toddy's "Down to Love" racks up the plays. Listen to the cutoff on that synth line - crisp, but with a buttery finish, like a good chocolate chip cookie. When the deeper line comes in to back up the beat, it goes right where a dancer wants it to, a little behind the beat with a few little slaps. Make sure to check out his latest EP, The Lush Haus Remixes, with work done on Gold Panda and Kimbra.

Slam Funk: Jupiter Remixes "Mauvaise Mine"

This is the stuff of legend - Jupiter, French/English electro duo, Paris-based (aren't all the good ones these days?), reportedly met on a dancefloor in 2008. Their influences include reggae rhythmic staples Sly & Robbie. Hold them, Marcus, hold them. They dig nothing but the deep tracks among the oldies, which they convert into electro hits. Just goes to show, what's good is always good.

Jupiter has made some noise in years past, which I have faithfully included below for reminiscence - or because "Starlighter" is a boss track that not be eclipsed by electro-pop since.

To be brutally honest, I hadn't heard it before all the blogs mentioned it as a mainstay. Let's get down and boogie, to Jupiter's latest album, Juicy Lucy, but mostly to their remix of Lafayette's "Mauvaise Mine," Soundclouded below.

One Year, One Song

The Ball drops in Times Square, which is the following distances from the following settlements on the Electric Mississippi:

St. Paul: 1,192 miles
St. Louis: 954 miles
Dubuque, IA: 969 miles
Clarksville, MO: 1019 miles

Truth is, Prom Sawyer's never had a particularly reminiscent New Years. It gets cold outside. People reflect, and the predict, too, which is something I can't help but do constantly.

For music on the Electric Mississippi, I will say this. People like to dance, and they like to feel good, and 2012 saw a resurgence in both of these things. There's a newfound earnestness at work in music, and with it, a desire for the simple, the relatable, and above all, the catchy. So against my nature, I can predict that we'll see more of such songs in 2012. And posted below is a song that epitomizes these qualities - the Atlanta-based Felix Da Housecat's remix of RAC and Penguin Prison's "Hollywood."

Echoes of the Happy Hands Club

Sweden's Happy Hands Club, as seen on the left where MGMT meets the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, has a way of blending surfrock phrases with the 1 & 3 dancebeat that's made Sweden famous in electropop in the last decade. There's a definite echo of Peter, Bjorn and John in the compressed vocals and narrative line of "Garden of Eden," released in early 2012. Check out the faint nod of the head to Washed Out's "New Theory" in the chorus, too. Happy Hands Club has a knack for learning from the best, but that's not to say that their creativity is bridled. No, the masked figures you see above have found their way to the trails of the Electric Mississippi by bridging the surf and the pop, and then electrifying it. Prom Sawyer's throwing in one of the Parking Lot remixes, too, the latest and greatest from the Swedish septet.

Poliça's (and Tropics') Nostalgic Electro R&B

Tropics, aka England's Chris Ward, dropped a beautiful remix of Poliça's "Wandering Star" earlier this week. 

Released this February on the Give You The Ghost LP, Poliça's 
fluttering vocals epitomize to the mystical melancholy that has 
enveloped electro R&B recently.  Listen to that beautiful - and very 
slight - effect that's thrown on the vocals, and the subtle lower 
harmonies. 


The Tropics remix capitalizes on that same theme of mysticism, 
dropping the beat to halftime and thinning out everything but an eerie piano over echoing synth lines. The electric Mississippi flows slowly in mourning. 

Kitsuné 14 - Peter & The Magician (Le Crayon Remix)

Perhaps Breakbot has enjoyed the most success of the French remix artists crossing the pond in the last few years to blast out of dorm rooms and through the woods of the Electric Mississippi. But   Kitsuné chose Le Crayon's remix of Peter & The Magician's "Memory" (also signed to Kitsuné) to champion the genre on their latest compilation. The Parisian producer is 20 years old, and since the October release of Kitsuné 14, he's been making quite a splash. We're looking forward to visiting some of Le Crayon's other work in the upcoming weeks.

Kitsuné itself is a French record label, clothing line, and most importantly to the Mississippi, a consolidator of fresh electronic music. The label began in 2002, founded in part by Gildas Loaëc - who at one time worked with the Daft Punk-founded label Roulé.

Tokimonsta // Grinnellevance 22

Sunday's yellow dawn blanketed the electric Mississippi - the river's electric blue glow sank into the deeper parts to rest during the daylight. Today, the weather of earlier fall still lingers in the valley, nostalgic for a time not yet left behind.
And Tokimonsta's Cupidity echoes through the scrub oaks of the electric Mississippi valley.

Tokimonsta - AKA LA's Jennifer Lee - was once an aspiring classical pianist. Her professional life has since taken a turn toward the avante-garde, and a plunge into the chill, painting soundscapes with a Macbook and a midi controller. 

Grinnellevance, Prom Sawyer's college radio show, featured a remix of DJ Shadow & Little Dragon's "Scale it Back," an instant deep soul classic. Montreal's Robotaki managed to spice up the rhythm without losing the resonance or nuance of the original track - and he does some interesting work on the key changes from the original. Check it out below.

Nu-Disco Collaboration

Grinnell, Iowa, has a sixteen square-block downtown. You can strut your stuff down every sidewalk in a flared white silk suit without having to change the song once. Tonight's a Saturday night. With that, Prom Sawyer brings you a nu-disco remix that's made quite a splash in the blogosphere in the last few days. The product of a collaboration between San Francisco table-turners K Theory and Boulder's TYR, the Stayin' Alive remix offers a bouncier take on a 35 year-old story.

Bobby Reed to Saint Etienne to Air France to Prince of Ballard

Today we come in hot with a repost from BochiCrew, another Grinnell-based blog recently picked up by HypeM (rep the set). The English electro trio Saint Etienne first released Spring on the LP Foxbase Alpha in 1991 - the Air France dropped their remix 2009. With November stretching its fingers across the electric Mississippi, we felt it necessary to return to that jazzy breeze we'll find in on the other side of winter. This track made some noise a few years back - a well-deserved return.

The original sample is Bobby Reed's "The Time is Right for Love," a northern soul deep dig that another record turner, Prince of Ballard, remixed last year. Check out was his dusty fingers produced below as well.