Monkey: Journey To The West – Diplo and Kwes mixes
Blur are back and playing to 45,000 in the summer but Damon’s got plans to rule not only indie pop but odd ball cartoon Monkey opera too. XL have roped in two of the finest re-mixers around to administer some Monkey chop, Diplo will be the one setting the Hype Machine alight, but Kwes has been rightly lauded of late (remix duties for Hot Chip not to mention his own wonderful productions).
He’s got a 7″ arriving in January, which StopMe described as ‘serenly beautiful‘ (more on Myspace) and his blog is worth a visit for general natter and killer freebie mixtapes.
Diplo has the genius idea of strapping the Monkey to the downbeat reggae swagger of Shineheads ‘Billie Jean‘ cover version (or at least that’s what gets stuck in my head when I hear it…don’t think twice…). Midway through it morphs into Dr. Dre style cruising in my bimmer style hip-hop before the swirling synths and Chinese lyrics of the original version take us back to Beijing.
If all music were this inventive, we’d have to invent The Killers just to give our brains a rest.
Monkey: Journey To The West – ‘Monkey Bee (Kwes mix)’ (MP3)
Monkey: Journey To The West – ‘Monkey Bee (Diplo mix)’ (MP3)Visit MonkeyWorld for wallpaper, downloads and a build your own Monkey theatre set for the kids.
Remix the Monkey Bee video
Buy the album
4AD are getting in the festive spirit by giving away a compilation of tracks from albums theyve put out this year. With Bon Iver, TV On The Radio, Atlas Sounds and Johann Johannsson all featuring, its essentially some of the finest sounds of 2008 all for nowt.
Visit here to listen and download
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It’s too rare a thing that two remixes can be so utterly different and yet equally satisfying.
I can’t choose between the two.
I think Kwes is gonna rule 2009 based on everything I’m hearing.
Ryan (StopMe)
I wanted to like the Kwes mix more, but Diplo’s use of that Billie Jean reggae beat gets my vote
Just heard the Diplo mix on the drive home about 10mins ago. Instantly thought Shinehead, though…
“Midway through it morphs into Dr. Dre style cruising in my bimmer style hip-hop before the swirling synths and Chinese lyrics of the original version take us back to Beijing.
If all music were this inventive, we’d have to invent The Killers just to give our brains a rest,”
… I have to agree on all points here too!
Jonathan,
I really must dig out some old Shinehead and see if it actualy is a sample, certainly sounds like it.
Just checked out your site. Looks like I’ve got a bit of clicking to do, Coldcut, Alton ellis, Grace Jones…