Premiere Stream: El Guincho, “Antillas (Prins Thomas Remix)”
- story Matthew Schnipper
- photo Leonie Purchas (F54)
In his feature about El Guincho in FADER 54, Jace Clayton (aka fellow collage artist DJ /Rupture) outlined their shared nerd-out:
After 15 minutes shooting the shit about Dilla and Guinean label Sylliphone and how focused Dr Dre was when NWA first dropped, I’m outclassed when he starts talking about Frank Sinatra’s use of spring reverb. The conversation drifts from Milton Nascimiento (Zeus in El Guincho’s Pantheon) to calypso king Mighty Sparrow, and he says, “When I started producing, I was obsessed with exotica records.” It’s odd to meet a musician so energetic about other people’s music. Some can’t do it even when you specifically ask them too, but El Guincho’s a guy who big ups Martin Denny’s use of panning right before sharing this thoughts on Trinidadian harmonies, a guy who remembers where the cymbals were placed on that Bowie record.
El Guincho and Prins Thomas both have similarly varied tastes and keen ears, and the ability to reap a cross-section of sounds and house them under one rainbow. For his remix of “Antillas,” now available on 12-inch, Prins Thomas does not scamper far from the source, simply chopping and extending much of El Guincho’s vocal and removing and then teasing the original’s main melody, abstracting many of the song’s ancestral samples. It’s a cut up job, but more a sidestep and extension than a progression or regression.
Stream: El Guincho, “Antillas (Prins Thomas Remix)”
Junior Boys, “Work” (Prins Thomas Remix) MP3
- story Matthew Schnipper
A couple years back, Prins Thomas, Norwegian disco deity, DJ’d at Queens’ Water Taxi Beach. Water Taxi Beach is not actually a beach, just an empty lot filled with sand trucked in from somewhere—if memory serves, New Jersey. A friend got kicked out for peeing outside, no one was wearing shoes, everyone either dancing under a tent or pressed against the chainlink fence looking at the lights of the east side of Manhattan. Inside the tent, at a DJ booth so makeshift it looked like a stand at a career fair, Prins Thomas played whatever he wanted, which, at some point, was The White Stripes. This was such a striking choice, emptying out his basket of parading disco and pressing the gas on the guitar. People still danced. Though his remix of “Work,” by poppy duo Junior Boys, from their upcoming album Dull Beyond Care is less relentless than Jack and Meg’s pound and crash, it lives in a similar hemisphere of not dance. “Work it baby” are the lyrics, gruffly spoken, that emerge halfway through the 11-minute track, sticking their wet pointer in the air to check a bad forecast. But, like The White Stripes, it’s the guitar that’s got the greatest power, snake charming the track until, in the final minute, Prins Thomas fades its multiple incarnations together in favor of jingle bells and hand claps, finding its use and knowing when to discard it, like all the best DJs.
Download: Junior Boys, “Work” (Prins Thomas Remix)
Freeload: Lindstrom + Prins Thomas, “Rothaus (Groove Edit)” MP3
- story THE FADER
Masters of stoner dance jams Lindstrom and Prins Thomas linked up to record II, and are releasing “Rothaus (Groove Edit)’” into the wild. It is ideal for all the things you might do while relaxing. While the dudes might occasionally dip too far into the doobie disco well and coming out impenetrable, this song succeeds on its live drumming—the perfect accompaniment for when you’re sitting in a lawn chair and really want to dance by subtly shifting your feet side-to-side. It’s a non-movement movement!
Download: Lindstrom + Prins Thomas, “Rothaus (Groove Edit)”
Dear Winter, Eat It
- story THE FADER
We’ve had just about enough of this seeing-your-breath/feeling-your-soul-ebb bullshit that has been New York City weather since October, and we’ve done everything we can to be nice and post summer songs only as wishful thinking. But it looks like it’s time to play some hardball — HERE IT COMES, DICK WINTER — nothing but soft, pulsing, sort of housey Ibiza cabana jawns from now until we can wear shorts on the weekend and not freeze our babymakers off.
THE FADER vs WINTER: ROUND ONE:
Download: Bullion, “Time for Us All to Love” (via GvsB)
Download: Doves, “Kingdom of Rust (Prins Thomas Discomiks)” (via Pardon My Freedom)
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posted on Mar 10, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS tags Bullion, Doves, Eat It Winter, freeload, Prins Thomas, spring
