Thru You: The Remixes
Update: I've added the new album to thru-you.org - downloads, metadata, and links to all the original source videos.
Another update: more details and links.
Last month Kutiman released a remix project for Thru You Too: ten international producers, each interpreting his YouTube mashups through their own lens. The project launched with its own website and spans cumbia, dub, house, hip-hop, dark disco, future jazz, and more.
The concept is recursive in the best way. Kutiman found strangers on YouTube and stitched them into songs. Now other producers are taking those songs and making them into something else entirely. A remix of a remix of found footage.
"I'm New" (Thru You)
Copia Doble Systema (Global Bass / Cumbia) - Norwegian DJ Copyflex started this project in Copenhagen in 2009. They call it "cumbia vikingo." High-energy tropical bass with syncopated percussion and digital brass stabs. Supported by Diplo, Gilles Peterson. Listen here.
"My Vendetta" (Thru You Too)
Tomgi (Experimental Downtempo / Glitch) - Tel Aviv duo: Guy Dreifuss (Afficoman) from the underground scene, Tomer Cherkasky (Tomcee), an EDM producer (half of Offbeat Agents). This was their first official release together. Cinematic and abstract, with textured layers and glitchy percussion. Listen here.
"Give It Up" (Thru You Too) - three remixes:
Free The Robots (Psychedelic Hip-Hop / LA Beat Scene) - Chris Alfaro, Santa Ana, California. Pioneer of LA's beat movement. Thick, saturated synth basslines and cosmic atmosphere over MPC-style drums. Shared stages with Flying Lotus, DJ Shadow, Afrika Bambaataa. Listen here.
Garden City Movement (Dream-Pop / Indie-Electronic) - Tel Aviv trio on BLDG5 Records. This is the lead single for the remix project. Minimal and languid, giving every sound time to breathe. Pitchfork, Boiler Room, BBC6. Listen here.
Red Axes (Hypnotic House / Dark Disco) - Tel Aviv duo Dori Sadovnik and Niv Arzi. Started as post-punk band Red Cotton, returned from Amsterdam, launched the "Break It!" rave party brand. Chugging 4/4 rhythm with industrial textures and heavy reverb on the vocal fragments. Listen here.
See also: The incredible story behind "Give It Up".
"This Is How I Feel" (Thru You Too) - three remixes:
Jim Dunloop & Grzly Adams (Boom-Bap / Turntablism) - Berlin-based. Jim is a classically trained pianist who joined the legendary Fresh Familee rap crew in 1991. Grzly has been DJing since Cologne 1996. Classic 90s hip-hop structure with rhythmic scratching. Listen here.
Kalbata & Mixmonster (Analog Dub) - Tel Aviv duo. Ariel Tagar (bass music, Soul Jazz, Brownswood) and Uri Wertheim (funk band The Apples). Recorded through vintage gear with sub-heavy bass and tape delays creating a cavernous soundscape. Famous for flying to Kingston to track down Jamaican vocalists from the King Tubby era. Listen here.
Obas Nenor (Soulful House) (bonus track) - Ronen Sabo, aka Sabbo. Kutiman's longtime friend and collaborator who first introduced him to Afrobeat and funk back when they met in Tel Aviv. Warm grooving bassline and organic percussion. Listen here.
"No One In This World" (Thru You Too) - two remixes:
La dame Noir (Slo-Mo House / Nu-Disco) - Marseille collective. Started as a blog, became a bar, parties, a club, a record label, then a production unit. Clean walking disco bassline with 80s-inspired synth textures. Listen here.
Rejoicer (Future Jazz / Wonky Beat) - Yuvi Havkin, Tel Aviv. Founder of the Raw Tapes label. Shuffling off-kilter percussion and warm Rhodes piano chords with an improvisational jam-session feel. Listen here.
The full playlist is here.