Nuclear Beef

Remix Week Techno Remix Of Hip-Hop Audio Beef Today. Darwin concurs with Blackalicious that it's love.. it's love.

It's a little known (but true!) fact that Darwin, your humble music blogger here at Nuclear Beef, is also a DJ, producer and remixer. This is probably due to the fact that I'm terrible at promoting myself. I've done quite a few tracks, mixes, whatever, but nobody has ever heard them. It's a shame, because they're really quite good. (Did I mention humble?) I figured remix week was a good pretense opportunity to post some of my favorite remixes from the archives.

I did this remix in late 2002, shortly after the Blackalicious acapella became available. At the time I was working almost exclusively in Propellerheads Reason, and the version with the capable sampler was not out yet. All of the vocals in this track are arranged with slices of verse-length loops in the Recycle loop player. I increased the BPM from 110 to around 130, so the vocals are completely re-arranged to sound as if they're on beat. The original acapella is a bit awkward because of the laid back, irregular flow.. and the fact that there's background vocal accents. This project was definitely an education in working with a vocal, and I think it turned out well.

The original Blackalicious track is jazzy and laid back, but when I did this remix I focused around the spoken section at the end. I thought about what techno dance parties had meant to me and the thoughts echoed the joyous feelings he describes. Techno and dancing make me "Feel That Way" and so you can consider this remix my love letter to everyone I've ever danced with. Even the dubbed out section at the end is a bit of a homage to the DBX techno classic "Losing Control." It's love.. love.. it's it's love.

Tune in all this week for more original remix loving!