After the Hit, a Remixed Bag

The vocals crying in bluesy anguish, “Baby, I’m gonna leave you,” are unmistakably those of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant. But you can barely hear the familiar cries of Jimmy Page’s guitar, which have been replaced by a pulsating dance beat. As the song reaches its climax, Plant’s vocals begin to echo repeatedly over the rising groove.

Welcome to the world of remixes, where the transformation of a Zeppelin standby into a throbbing club anthem (courtesy of Paul Oakenfold) is just a walk in the park--or rather, a day in the studio.

And it’s a world that is hotter than ever these days.

With the Grammys recently instituting a remixer of the year award and MTV covering who’s doing what remixes, the process is finding its way into the pop culture lexicon.

The remix is not a new phenomenon. The practice of reconstructing an artist’s track in the studio goes back decades, but because of the various names it has gone under over the years--dub, radio edit, club mix--it’s hard to pin down exactly when the practice came into play.

One thing people do agree on, though, is that its practitioners are being accorded unprecedented respect.

Electronic artist BT (Brian Transeau) attributes the attention to the rise of DJ culture. “The DJ is seen as a rock icon now, and the meteoric rise of the superstar DJ has made remixing cooler than ever,” he says.

“When I was holed up in my room 10 years ago mixing tracks that would go to No. 1 in Europe, we didn’t get the kind of credit that we get now.”

As remixing moves from the underground to the mainstream, though, it faces the same threats to its integrity as other music subcultures, such as punk and rap, have dealt with.

But Los Angeles-based DJ and artist Richard “Humpty” Vission, who was nominated last year for remixer of the year for his work with Madonna, among others, says it’s all about the quality of the remix.

“There are going to be good remixes and bad remixes, and there are going to be cheesy remixes, just like there are cheesy records and there are credible records. DJs will play what they like. If they don’t like that ‘N Sync remix, they won’t play it, but they won’t be, like, ‘I’m against all remixes.”’

Still, the proliferation of remixes creates some dangers to the medium, most notably overkill. Vission warns that having three or four remixes of the same track might dilute the original intent of the song to the point that it’s unrecognizable.

Another drawback: With the major labels’ growing interest in the remix business, the days of experimenting for the sake of experimenting are gone. That’s the view of musician-producer Chris Vrenna, who records under the name Tweaker and recently did remixes for U2 and Nelly Furtado.

“Every time Depeche Mode would do a single, they’d have a 12-inch [version] with four or five reinterpretations of the song for no real reason,” says Vrenna, a former member of Nine Inch Nails. “That seems to have gone away for a little bit, and now people are getting the mix done for a particular goal.”

BT notes that keeping the original meaning of the song is what makes a good remixer. But it’s not always easy. “My favorite remixes always encapsulate the original emotional integrity of a piece of music but make it work in a different context,” he says.

With so many remixers at work, all with their own styles, there’s a wide range of opinion on what makes a good remix, what you try to accomplish with a remix, and what the current notoriety for remixes means for the dance world.

However, all the remixers interviewed here agreed on why they take on a project: for the love of the song. As BT summarizes, “It’s all about honoring the original piece of music.”

The names that rank high on their lists are Armand Van Helden, Sweden’s Hakan Lidbo, Sasha and Junior Sanchez. Rising DJ Timo Maas was also cited, but the clear consensus was Deep Dish, regarded as the most reliable and consistent remix force today. As Vission puts it, “Deep Dish always comes correct.”

The Washington, D.C.-based duo of Ali Shirazinia and Sharam Tayebi is on a roll right now, with its remix of ‘N Sync’s “Pop” bringing it national attention. That means that the duo finds itself very much in demand right now.

“These days, we’re saying we hope we don’t get more records sent in the mail,” Shirazinia says, “because it’s just an insane amount of stuff. It’s almost too much.”

Rather than capitalize on their in-demand status, though, the duo is taking a hiatus from the remix game to concentrate on its own music. “We’re fulfilling old commitments, but we’re not taking on anything else,” Shirazinia says. “The less work we have as far as remixes and other stuff, the easier it is for us to stay in the studio and do original material.”

It’s not as if they’re completely leaving the remix business. Tayebi says that if a song comes along they can’t pass up, they will take on the project.

“Once in a while, a song comes through that it would be a crime if we don’t do it,” he says. He’s just hoping there aren’t many of them. “It will all be about the quality of the project, so hopefully, the next six months we’re not going to get too many quality songs offered to us.” *