Here’s where Baroque really flexes his production muscle. When he remixes a song by someone like 80kidz, the results often sound good but also just like a rougher version of the original. Yet when the dude tackles a song belonging to a style vastly different than his own – the subsequent reworking absolutely kills. He did it when he tried his hand at remixing a Matt & Kim track earlier this year, and he does it one more time by digging into 80’s goof-troop Chromeo’s “Don’t Turn The Lights On.” The original track follows the Chromeo blueprint closely, laying a slinky melody out first that eventually winds its way to a catchy chorus – like most of their output, it’s very catchy but also annoyingly ironic and, in the wake of a project like How To Dress Well who approach this retro-sound from a fresh angle, completely disposable (The Singles Jukebox sum this up better than I could).
Baroque takes this fluffy wad of synthpop and menaces it up. Sticking to his well-worn technique of being abrasive, he equips “Don’t Turn The Lights On” with a much more intimidating beat from the get-go before dropping a chainsaw-strong buzz over the verses. This heavy noise succeeds in adding a layer of creepiness Chromeo couldn’t convey in the song (though it’s what they shoot for in the video, below). Baroque also scatters up the original’s strongest point, the chorus, giving it even more of a personal touch. “Don’t Turn The Lights On” will probably end up being Baroque’s strongest reworking of 2010, and you should listen to it here.
Chromeo’s original:
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP7mxcvGejQ”]