In theory, this shouldn’t be noteworthy – Japanese producer takes track from British pop star, replaces the club-friendly elements with 8-bit noises while keeping the sticky sweet chorus intact. That’s what Fukuoka’s Breezesquad did with Little Boots’ “Shake,” removing nearly everything from the original save for the vocal track, and sticking that inside an NES. Should be a bit too gimmicky, yeah?
Nope, because Breezesquad’s take stands toe to toe with the original cut, and after a few listens I personally like the 8-bit version a bit better. Little Boots’ original really gets kicking when the chorus comes around, but everything surrounding that moment sounds too much like generic dance music, as if Little Boots’ decided what her career needed was to be dipped into the world of English electronic dance music. Breezesquad’s video-game fascination, though, manages to be more consistently engaging before the chorus…which, again, still works even when placed on top of something that could be out of Bomberman – with all the pixelated burps going off in all sorts of directions. Listen below.