It’s too bad that Jamie xx’s moniker is so rooted in the band (hipster-cliche punching bag The xx) for which he’s better known–his minimal dubstep compositions are good to the point of making his Mercury Prize-winning trio seem like a side project. As a primer, listen to Jamie’s precise remixes of Florence and the Machine, Jack Penate, and his day job band. He plays damn good Macbook, so it’s strange and brilliant that he’s decided to collaborate with an intensely natural instrument–the scratchy 61-year-old throat of Gil Scott-Heron.
In February, Scott-Heron came from (what felt like) nowhere to release “I’m New Here”, his first album in thirteen years. His near-spoken word tracks confirmed his status as rap-forebear-royalty. This week’s Tuesday Track “NY is Killing Me” is one of the products of Jamie’s reworking of 13 tracks from the Gil Scott-Heron “I’m New Here” sessions. The remix album (“We’re New Here”) is out February 21st, but the original “New York is Killing Me,” featuring Nas, is also worth a listen.
Jamie’s version is ambient and minimal and takes a while to sneak up on you, but makes great bleary-eyed twelfth-hour-of-your-all-nighter music–the title is all too appropriate for this point in the semester. Check out the video above, or buy the track here.
[...] both versions here. [...]