Reinvent, Remix, Reveal

Marina & The Diamonds to round off the week, with a baker's dozen of remixes drawn from the three albums, The Family Jewels (2009), Electra Heart (2012) and Froot (2014).

Marina has performed and released records mononymously since 2018 but her earlier material is still fertile ground for reworks and re-edits. Interspersed with the contemporaneous remixes by 'name' artists such as Fred Falke, Benny Benassi and Blood Orange/Devonté Hynes, here you'll find some fan-based versions by Solitary Jewel, Gabrielle B, Exile and MATDMixes. 

 

Several of these bootleg mixes imagine a parallel universe where Marina was born twenty years earlier and became a huge star in the 1980s. Sounds odd - and the accompanying Photoshopped images are even odder - but strangely it works.

I've been a fan of Marina since hearing I Am Not A Robot for the first time in 2009. In an overcrowded world of pop, she's found a place somewhere between Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey that's unmistakably her own and continues to explore new territory with each album, whilst retaining the irresistible hooks of those early singles.

 

For more treasures, the official Marina website is chock full of visual and aural delights.

Oh, and a very belated happy birthday to Marina Lambrini Diamandis for 10th October.

 

1) Electra Heart (Alternative [Hard Rock Inspired] Version-Remix By Solitary Jewel) (2021)

2) Oh No! (Grum Remix By Graeme Shepherd) (2010)

3) Shampain (Fred Falke Remix) (2010)

4) Mowgli's Road (Mille Remix By Mille Ponken) (2009)

5) Froot (Synthwave Electro Remix 80s By Gabrielle B) (2022)

6) Obsessions (Ocelot Remix By Aaron Peacock) (2010)

7) Teen Idle (1987) (Exile 80s Ballad Remix) (2022)

8) Living Dead (Extended Mix By MATDMixes) (2020)

9) I Am Not A Robot (Penguin Prison Remix By Chris Glover) (2010)

10) Radioactive (Blood Orange Remix By Devonté Hynes) (2011)

11) Blue (Holychild Remix By Elizabeth Nistico & Louie Diller) (2015)

12) Hollywood (Monarchy Gliese Remix By Andrew Kornweibel & Ra Khahn) (2010)

13) Primadonna (Benny Benassi Remix) (Full Length)  (2012) 

Reinvent, Remix, Reveal (1:12:20) (GD) (M)

What I Once Refused To Be Is Everything They Long Together

Entertainment is the lead single and opening track from the 2013 album Bankrupt! by the French band Phoenix. There were a few remixes to accompany the release, from Dinosaur Jr. (a cover version, which sounds pretty much as you'd imagine) and Dirty Projectors (so-so). 

The one I keep coming back to though is by Dev Hynes, in his Blood Orange guise, which sounds almost like it's been lifted from a 1980s movie soundtrack. In a surprising move, the remix also features guest vocals from Mutya Buena, Keisha Buchanan & Siobhan Donaghy aka the original line-up of Sugababes. 

After numerous iterations, and by that time none of the founding members, Sugababes had finally crashed in 2011. At the time the original trio were unable to reuse the Sugababes name and instead had to promote themselves as Mutya Keisha Siobhan. They were writing and recording with Dev Hynes, hence their appearance on the Phoenix remix, roughly 6 months before the release of (I think) their sole single, Flatline. 

I'm not going to pretend that I have any real interest in Sugababes but whatever my thoughts (or indifference) towards the band, their harmonies on the chorus really lift the remix to another level. The Guardian reviewed the remix back in 2013. It's no longer available as a free download, but you can still stream it on Soundcloud.

The official video for the rather more upbeat sounding original version is also (excuse the pun) very entertaining.

Entertainment (Blood Orange Remix By Dev Hynes): Phoenix ft. Mutya Keisha Siobhan (2013)

Entertainment (Album Version): Phoenix (2013)