Admittedly, I don't spend much time searching out and listening to remixes. There are simply too many of them, and many of them seem pointless. But every now and then a servicable remix comes along to remind you what was so great about the original song.This new remix (courtesy of discoattack) of The xx's blissfully perfect "Islands" highlights just what makes this band so remarkable. Unlike rock, R&B has the luxury of space. Think of the way that soul beats from the 60s and 70s were able to cruise at will, gently touching the gas pedal enough to encourage forward momentum. But contemporary R&B fills in lots of that space with electronic flourshes that give the song a sense of claustrophobia. Just think of Timbaland's layered weirdness that propped up Aaliyah's voice. One of the most appealing aspects of The xx's debut was their ability to provide the illusion of space. The instrumentation was little more than a simply Casio beat and some smooth bass tones. This isn't a wall of sound so much as a fence of sound with regular and predictable openings to see through to the other side. The Nosaj Thing remix fills in those spaces with a hazy beat riding over synth lines that move from twinkling to menacing. Filling in all those spaces with eletronic packing peanuts has choked out all the sexy slink of the original, replacing it with gauzy spook.
You can buy Nosaj Thing's debute LP Drfit here.
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