DJ Mehdi » Red Black and Blue

RED BLACK AND BLUE: D-DAY

djmehdi — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:00:28 +0000

RBB DAY -1

djmehdi — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:00:59 +0000

18. MANU KEY ‘Si Tu Savais’ (2000)

I have also been remixed many times: by Etienne de Crecy, General Electrics, Kenny Dope, Switch, Outlines, Surkin, Thomas Bangalter, Brodinski and Joakim. And you know me, I hate to name drop.

19. CSS ‘Music is my Hot Hot Sex’ (2007)

Conclusion, an interesting remix offer is like the good news of my every day. An artist I’m a fan of. A label I’d be honoured to have my name associated to. A superstar. A new cat with a good voice. For free or for a whole lot of money. No matter how many times I’ve said (or heard) “I’m not doing remixes anymore!”, I’ll always try to work the magic of the “beatmaking+having fun” formula.

Peace to King Tubby, Lee Scratch Perry, Tom Moulton, Larry Levan, Jellybean and Shep Pettibone for starting this whole thing.

RBB DAY -2

djmehdi — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:00:25 +0000

17. CASSIUS ‘Feeling For You’ (1999)

When I played this mix to the Cassius boys, Boombass told me it sounded like a DJ Premier beat played at 45 rpm instead of 33. It’s about the best compliment somebody ever made to me. One day I might do a mixtape of Hip-hop beats played at Techno tempos. Maybe even produce a whole album of it.

RBB DAY -3

djmehdi — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:00:50 +0000

16. SANTIGOLD ‘Lights Out’ (2008)

The very first remix I did was for LES SAGES POETES DE LA RUE, a french Hip-hop band on MC Solaar’s label – and then Swiss band LES PETITS BOSS on Arsenal Records in 1995. I thank those guys for putting me on. I still remember the feeling of seeing my name printed on a record cover for the first time. Priceless.

Coming back to this record, I did this Santigold remix last year for a Budweiser commercial in America. Corporate remixing didn’t stop me from meeting and kicking it with the golden lady, thankfully. Little technical note, this is the first track I produced using only my computer. No external tools, no drum machine, no outboard mixing. Who cares.

RBB DAY -4

djmehdi — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:00:25 +0000

And then, there are the songs you don’t particularly like. Or that are so far from your field, you don’t even know where to start with. Popular belief amongst my crew is that the less you care for the original, the better the remix will be. Because you have no attachment whatsoever, you can just make a whole new number out of it.

I went to Iceland once, to play in Reykjavik. I hung out with the Steed Lords, they were mad cool, they wanted to trade a remix of their single against two pairs of vintage Cazals sunglasses -which was, of course, an offer I couldn’t refuse. One reason I’m happy to have done this, is that they eventually went on to play it live on stage during their concerts. It’s not that often that you hear a remix replacing the original in a band set-list. Also, my friend Bogue played the guitar skank on it. For your info, he also played the piano on ‘Pocket Piano’. He’s dope.

RBB DAY -5

djmehdi — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:00:56 +0000

14. SEBASTIEN TELLIER ‘Oh Malheur Chez O’Malley’ (2003)

Speaking of songs, they’re, of course, the main material you’re provided with before starting to tweak. Now, there are two kind of songs you have to deal with: the ones you already like in the first place, and the ones you don’t. Sometimes it’s better to work on a track you care for. Sometimes you’ll want to take it all back to the acapella and re-create a whole new arrangement. And sometimes you’re almost scared to touch it because it’s already so good.

Seb Tellier’s ‘Oh Malheur’ is a masterpiece. This remix was part of a special present my crew (the Club75) made for Busy Pedro’s 30th birthday. The sole reason I ruined the original is because I knew how much the birthday boy loved it, so I was giving him a version only he could play out. I’m glad Tellier liked it enough to let me use it here.

RBB DAY -6

djmehdi — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:00:43 +0000

13. CHROMEO ‘Waiting for you’ (2007)

When it comes to this remix game, I have only one rule: first there is THE BEAT. Remixing = beatmaking + having fun.

As a matter of fact, sometimes the beat and the bass are the only things I change from the original song, and I just keep the rest. It’s almost the case on this Chromeo joint. Originally, it was a demo I prepared when they asked me to produce a song for their ‘Fancy Footwork’ album. But DaveOne didn’t want to use it because, I quote, it sounded too much like a remix!

I love Chromeo, by the way, and I love this song.

RBB DAY -7

djmehdi — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:00:28 +0000

12. SEB MARTEL ‘Serge Dylan’ (2003)

Right now unofficial remixes are the new demo.

I personally love to get unsolicited remixes of my own songs, and I also have my own share of bootlegs. For example, I remixed Biggie, Nas, Jay-Z, and TuPac in 2004, using acapellas I found on Napster. Unfortunately I couldn’t include them on this record, because of copyright clearance. Other official remixes of mine that I couldn’t get: ‘Charlie Brown’ by Ghostface Killa, ‘AKH’ by Akhenaton, and ‘Make The World Go Round’ by Busta Rhymes. It’s a real shame because I would’ve love this compilation to have more Rap on it.

RBB DAY -8

djmehdi — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:00:02 +0000

11. ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI ‘In case we die” (2006)

Here’s a little insider info for you: the remix business is the last field where old and twisted industry jive is still taking place. “Change this, change that” or ” at 1′34 can you change the reverb and put the hihat louder?”, or the absolute classic “why is it only 3 minutes long? Can you make it longer, like 4′30 ?”. For a long time, I thought I was the only one going through this, I didn’t even want to talk about it. Now I know the truth: accepting money to make music will always somehow oblige you to comply to the payer’s wishes.

In the case of Architecture In Helsinki, I have to admit, it was probably the smoothest transaction ever made. They asked, I said yes. I did it, they said yes. Thank them.

RBB DAY -9

djmehdi — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 15:00:41 +0000

10. SAM SPARRO ’21st Century Life’ (2007)

My other favourite remixers are Pete Rock, Maurice Fulton, Justice and Mr Oizo. In my opinion, they keep the best balance when it comes to sounding like a proper song/doing computer music. That’s one thing I always strive for. And then there’s the acoustics. The dance-floor factor. The résumé. The class.

This SPARRO track is about the only attempt I ever made to produce a 4/4 house music song. It’s one strange thing to produce (and almost exclusively listen to) a kind of music I never get to play myself in a club when I DJ. This is another head-wrecker of mine, and I have yet to find the solution to this dilemma: should my production style get closer to my DJ bag, or the opposite?