New AW Remix: Phantogram’s “Mouthful of Diamonds”

May 13th, 2010

Boom boom boooooom. Lemme hear you say way-o [way-oooooooo].

Extraordinarily pleased to announce my latest “official” remix, this time of the lovely Phantogram’s “Mouthful of Diamonds.” They released their debut album, “Eyelid Movies,” on Barsuk Records on 2/9/2010, and Barsuk (quite flatteringly) called my remix a “joyous new-wave inflected delight.” The remix also first premiered on Entertainment Weekly, which was AMAZING!

Phantogram is a duo, comprised of Sara Barthel and Josh Carter. They first caught my ear a few months ago when they were making the rounds on the blogosphere. Their production is really minimal and generally pretty dark – reminds me of an updated Massive Attack or Portishead, but a little more guitar and synth-driven. And I just LOVE the singer, Sara’s voice; she has this smoky, whispery beautiful thing going on… And on “Mouthful of Diamonds,” it really shines through and sits perfectly right in the middle of it, creating this dark and dreamy little world.

So, in my usual fashion, I turned the song completely on its head and produced it in the absolute opposite way – the only thing I kept from the original version is Sara’s vocals. I took it from minimal trip-hop to ultra-layered bubblegum pop, from dark to ultraviolet-bright. I loaded it up with synths and a dance beat, and recorded a whole bunch of guitars, percussion, squishes and squelches…

I highly encourage you to give the original a listen on the band’s myspace before checking out my version, as they’re SUPER different but somehow magically work great together… musical yin and yang!

You can listen to it and download below, and by all accounts please share it with any and everyone you know! Tweet the link, throw it on your facebook, send it to your grandma – everything’s fair game!

Many many thanks for listening, and happy Thursday!

Love,
A

Entry Filed under: May 2010, Press, Remix