Palisades - Another Techno Jawn

Larry Rogers | July 27, 2014

I told you that story to introduce you to Palisades Another Techno Jawn, a digital work-over of the band's single "High and Low."  The original song, full of drum machines, auto-tune, and glossy production elements is certainly fun, electronic dance tunage. Somebody in the Palisades' camp asked five of their musical friends to revisit the song to produce this EP.  From one came many, each of them unique.

 

Opening the EP, the MindlessMindless mix starts out trippy, and uses most of the original track's sonic elements, including most of the vocals, which contrasts with a couple others in the collection.  This version is faithful to the vision of the original which only makes sense, because the remix artist MindlessMindless is actually Palisades member Earl Halasan.

 

Issues’ own DJ Scout’s remix re-envisions the love song element to turn an energetic techno/dance tune into a slow-dance love song.  Every time I thought it would erupt into full fledged dance mode, it crossed me up and stayed low-key and quiet.  This is the version I would imagine serious fans of the song use at their weddings.

 

Like the Stevie Wonder/Cosby Show story, the Dream Beach version by Andrew Oliver of I See Stars, takes the most liberties with the sounds from the original track.  As a very sparse tune, this song keeps a drum machine track at its base, using only spare and low-volume musical elements while playing bits of the vocal tracks as notes and digital sounds.  The source of this style on the track is probably in part due to I See Stars' style.  He's only one member of a full band, so his contributions aren't often the entirety of the performance.  While an interesting exercise, even the most determined floor junkie would have trouble actually dancing to this tune.

 

Kyle Pavone of We Came as Romans offers up his take as Secoya.  This version's heavy drums and beat emphasis, along with its really repetitive use of a few elements from the original, give this track a strangely hollow sound.  Despite the emphasis on beat, this isn't a very good dance tune, more rave than dance. It’s definitely more about demonstrating Secoya's artistry - quite possibly because, similar to Andrew Oliver, Pavone is only a part of a larger band, and doesn't often get to strut his chops all by himself.

 

Closing out the five tracks is the DIMIR mix by Lee McKinny of Born of Osiris.  Less hollow than the preceding track, the first 30 seconds feature a near-looping repeat of the line "Hit 'em with the high and the low," a prominent bass-sung element from the original.  Following that opening, the rest of the vocals and more drum tracks are introduced.  Eventually, most of the elements from the original get used.  This track's tempo changes and segmentary nature could certainly be used as a dance performance track, suitable for auditioning for "So You Think You Can Dance?"  This version is very poppy and enjoyable - quite different from the growling metalcore of McKinny's band.

 

Hell, the whole EP is enjoyable.  When I first looked at the album, I was a bit worried about how repetitive the whole thing was likely to be.  I'm quite pleased to have been wrong.  The common base track does keep the whole enterprise hanging together well.  In a bit of interactive marketing only possible in the internet age, the band has a contest going on right now that allows anyone with the most primitive knowledge of music mixing to participate.  Hop on over to the contest to get your musical stems and instructions!  There's only a few days left, so get on it!