Generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of remixes. Often, they don't add much to the original. Or, conversely, they change so much, that the original is hardly recognizable anymore. However, sometimes, a remix can reveal a cool side of a song that you didn't see before. Such is the case with today's very short One Buck Record (more of a One Buck EP, actually). I stumbled upon these a little like I stumbled upon Midlake itself and their fantastic The Trials Of Van Occupanther., recently resequenced for a better listening experience. As said on the write-up to taht post, the album was almost a total blind buy, other than a little blurb from a music store employee I believe, and possibly a song I heard on one of those music samplers that were popular with music magazines, in this case Rolling Stone.
The song that might have been on that sampler, and the one that opens Trials and puts people under the spell of Midlake's strange alchemy? That would be "Roscoe", the song that gets put through the (remix) wrnger on this little offering. The song is perfect, in that it already brings everything the album will do to the table.It's also a weird little tune, as most on Trials are: "if I could change my name to something a little more productive like Roscoe". Say what?
The surprising thing about this song is how elastic it is. Before stumbling upon these remixes, I hadn't necessarily thought of "Roscoe" as a song you can dance to, yet these three variations bring out that part of the song, to various degrees. The 'Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Mix' that opens this EP emphasizes the song's dreamy side, while also retaining a dance-able rhythm. The 'Justin Robertson Remix goes full dance beat with 80s keyboard motifs, that the band probably would approve of, added to the mix. The 'Fading Soul Remix', while also maintaining a dance-able rhythm seems to put an emphasis on the melancholy side of the song. And to remind you how good the original is, I added a live version of the song to the end, if you want a purer "Roscoe" than the very dancehall-ready other three.
But why would you? These are just way cooler than they have any right to be, which is why I wanted to share them with you. So, get ready to get to know Roscoe 1, Roscoe 2, Roscoe 3 and Roscoe 4. Groovy, baby!
Four Roscoes
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Which song, which at its core isn't a dance tune, would you like to see dance-abled (if only to see ho that could possibly turn out...)?
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