small.cat, aka Roald Blijleven, has done what I think is a brilliant remix of the Dance Tracks Digital / Dirtybird remix contest track “Dum.” I heard it as satirical, deconstructing the stems into something quite different. I actually laughed out loud at a couple of spots. I realize of course, that mistaking satire is a sore spot at the moment. But I enjoyed it, anyway. And I mean that in the best possible way – I think the musical result is really satisfying.
And bonus points for doing a remix in Reason for a contest sponsored by Ableton with an included Live set. (Hey, I think you should use whatever music tool makes you happy.) Roald writes:
well i have finished my remix. did it in Reason. it was quite a pain to prepare everything, as the samples they provide were not just notes but full melodies and stuff. so i put them all in Audacity and cut everything up to size to load in Redrum and NNXT. it’s on the website right now, so take a listen. if you do not believe i just created the world’s greatest new hip sweaty-ass jiggling track, let me know. because i can’t think of a single reason not to like it.
It worked for me. My ass is sweating. (Wait a minute – I think label founder Claude VonStroke wanted the track sweating, and ass jiggling. No matter.)
Naturally, the spirit of remixing is coming up with something different than what you started with, so I look forward to hearing what else readers have in store, here and elsewhere.