Duo tries hand at a new version of the remix
By Chris Nixon
For the San Diego Union-Tribune
July 20, 2006
'The ultimate collection of remixes features 18 dubbed-out versions of songs from The Doors, Sarah McLachlan, Astrud Gilberto, Nouvelle Vague, Wax Poetic featuring Norah Jones, Anoushka Shankar, Transglobal Underground and many more. Includes a new original Thievery Corporation track featuring Sister Nancy,” reads the cover of Thievery Corporation's new album “Versions.”
Rob Garza and Eric Hilton – the two producer-musicians who comprise Thievery Corporation – have gained a worldwide audience as purveyors of tranquil downtempo music, seamlessly fusing styles from around the world. With “Versions,” the Washington, D.C.-based duo turns its attention to the art of the remix.
Normally, producers will take the tracks from a single and slightly tweak the sounds to emphasize aspects within the song. Thievery Corporation chose to completely deconstruct their remixed songs, just keeping the original vocals and building a new song around the main vocal tracks.
“The remix album is different because it's not technically our music, although a lot of those remixes are 100 percent our music and just using the vocal of the original,” said Hilton recently via phone from his hometown of Washington, D.C. “It's an extreme version of a remix.”
“It's kind of like making a Thievery record with a bunch of guest artists on it,” continued Hilton. “We're contracted to do remixes for various artists. We just pick our favorites after a while and try to present them as a collection. Remixing is a big part of what we do. In the end, we're producers and artists, and remixing is on the production side. But it works very well as an album also.”
“Versions” sounds like a Thievery record, filled with dreamy dub reggae and spacey pop. But instead of Perry Ferrell or The Flaming Lips adding guest vocals (as both did on TC's 2005 release “The Cosmic Game”), you have Jim Morrison (on The Doors' “Strange Days”) and Astrud Gilberto (“Who Needs Forever”).
So how did Hilton and Garza choose the tracks to remix? “We chose the tracks one by one,” said Hilton. “In doing so, it makes the album a little heavy on the downtempo groove with female vocals. Nouvelle Vague, Astrud Gilberto, Bebel Gilberto, Norah Jones. There are so many great female vocalists that we've worked with.”
Thievery Corporation will be playing a two-night stand at 4th & B in downtown San Diego tomorrow and Saturday. The two dates are part of a mini West Coast tour, centered around a show at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday sponsored by Santa Monica radio station KCRW.
“It's a huge show: We're playing with The Flaming Lips and Os Mutantes,” said Hilton. “It's almost sold out. That's 17,000 tickets. That'll be the biggest show we've ever played and something we couldn't turn down, even though we had no real desire to do touring this year. If we're going to be out there, we might as well play our best cities on the West Coast.”
Chris Nixon is a San Diego music writer.
