By Ellie Shalvarjian
Staff Writer
“Worlds (remixed)” is a highly anticipated, collaborative 12-track album that was released on October 2nd. It contains remixes of Porter Robinson’s original album “Worlds” from various well known EDM artists including Odesza, Slumberjack, and Mat Zo. While all tracks are remixed by different artists, the album is a cohesive collection of songs that work well together.
Porter Robinson is an electronic music producer and DJ. Within the past year, the producer has become increasingly popular, even winning the MTVu Artist of the Year Award. Robinson has also done official remixes for artists such as Lady Gaga and Avicii, and co-wrote Zedd’s most well known song “Clarity.”
Certain tracks on this album can feel overwhelming, but generally each song is remixed nicely. The songs showcase the certain remixer’s style, whether mellow or powerful, while retaining the same distinct appeal and themes from the original album.
The album starts off with “Divinity-Odesza Remix,” which contains offbeat vocals and drums that initially sound excessive, but become less dramatic over time. This remix, while not retaining many elements from Porter Robinson’s original song, captures Odesza’s sound that contains a steady and relaxed beat.
There were high hopes for the “Sad Machine-Deon Custom Remix,” since the original song had been a hit; however, the actual remix was a let down. The remix did not stray too far from the original and ended up sounding repetitive and overwhelming due to the layered synth.
“Hear the Bells-Electric Mantis Remix” is by far the best song on the whole album, as it combines complex sounds with the vocals from the original track. This song most successfully incorporated both relaxing and powerful rhythms that create a new sound that had not been heard before.
The song “Sea of Voices-Galimatias Remix” completely revamped the original song by incorporating an overall jazzy sound with pulses of synth, the base for the two songs are similar but lack other significant similarities giving them each their own unique appeal. This song stood out nicely, unlike many of the other songs, due to its completely different sound
The album finisher is the “Goodbye to a World- Chrome Sparks Remix.” While the track is undeniably long, the remix keeps the song interesting and modern. On both the original and remixed album this song proves itself to be a good closing piece that incorporates all major themes and aspects presented in the album.
Overall, all the tracks are well done and catchy; however, a lot of the songs do sound very similar to the original which contrasts the point of remixing them. Since many of the songs are remixed by very well known producers there is a lot more that is expected from the remixes and many of them seem to fall short.
Even though this album is not as good as the promotions, it will still most likely be successful due to the well known producers and how well the original album did. Avid electronic music fans and casual listeners alike will be able to appreciate the hard work put into producing this album.
“Worlds (remixed)” was released October 2nd and is available on Spotify for free or on iTunes for $9.99.
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