"Life's a Beach! (Prins Thomas Remix)"/ "Life's a Beach! (Todd Terje's Beach House Mix)" [Stream]

On Repeat: Studio: "Life's a Beach! (Prins Thomas Remix)"/ "Life's a Beach! (Todd Terje's Beach House Mix)" [Stream]

Swedish experimental duo Studio might be one of the rare cases where you'd expect a dance remix to be shorter than the original track. On this year's worthy Yearbook 1, the band's percolating grooves can easily fold over themselves for as long as 16 minutes. The soul of the album's nearly 13-minute standout "Life's a Beach!" is reinvention: handclaps, murky bass, and liquid guitar licks intertwining and rearranging themselves until the tide comes in (cue the beach sound effects).

Norwegian spaceman Prins Thomas-- like Studio an admirer of Manuel Göttsching-- doesn't so much reinvent "Life's a Beach!" as adjust its focus. With an emphasis on glistening synths over guitar riffs, Thomas' remix could soundtrack a hammock-bound afternoon in some remote tropical locale (Thomas' remix of Simian Mobile Disco's "I Believe" would be spinning at the club that evening).

 

 

A faster take, fellow Norwegian DJ/producer Todd Terje's "Beach House Mix", plays up the track's lithe bass groove, adds some delay to the guitars, and settles into sunbaked Balearic house mode. This would soundtrack that same hammock-bound afternoon-- with a pitcher of mojitos and a cool island breeze. Which mix is better? Hard to say; I'm starting to daydream here.

[from the "Life's a Beach!" 12"; out now on Information]

Posted by Marc Hogan on Tue, Jul 17, 2007 at 7:00am