“Any remix I’ve done I almost never use any of the original music,” James Murphy told BBC 6 Music this morning, as he presented the premiere of his 10-minute take on David Bowie’s “Love is Lost” single. “The challenge for me is to create a new track that serves the vocal in a different way but doesn’t make the vocal feel pasted on. I always want the vocal to feel a part of it, but to re-contextualize it as much as possible.”
That’s certainly the case here, as the former LCD Soundsystem frontman sets things off with a Steve Reich reference, loose synth lines and a piano part that pays tribute to “Ashes to Ashes” without stealing it wholesale. (Fun fact: Murphy discovered how Bowie got that original sound by talking to his longtime friends Soulwax.)
“I was a little worried he might hate that or say take that away,” he explained, when asked about the live piano loop, “but given the nature of The Next Day—its recall of the Heroes cover and its sense of its own history—it actually, I think, worked out.”
Indeed:
‘The Next Day Extra’ is due out November 5th through Columbia.
