MUSIC: Night Drive – Rise And Fall (Classixx Remix)

A remix lives or dies on its comparison to the original track. The best remixes reinterpret the music and lyrics with an innovative yet reverential approach. Having listened to a good remix, perhaps you gain a better appreciation of the original’s meaning or mood. Perhaps you’re left with a bold reimagining that retains some refracted glint of the original’s. Or perhaps it just makes you want to dance your ass off.

The “Rise And Fall” remix by Classixx decidedly eases itself into this third category. Released in late 2016, the original broody break-up jam by Night Drive pulsed with heavy Depeche Mode-meets-Joy Division mood. Underscored by minor key drone, the lyrics depicted a perilous seesawing of passions between two people, constantly taking one lover higher while laying the other low.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE8Z-srSYWY

Flip the record to Classixx’s remix. The newfound and irrepressibly cool, disco-funk tones instantly rewire the emotional tenor of the original. This is no longer a tune for scoring strung-out, midnight car trips on empty highways (try a twilight, poolside lounge party). And maybe it’s just the afro-tropicalia instrumentation (Kalimbas? Marimbas?) but this remix’s new mood halfway solves the heartbreak themes posed by the original. Everything’s still not okay, yet the stakes are lowered. Desperation’s been dialed back down to a simple and sexy game of hearts. Grab a drink and figure it out.

[caption id="attachment_92699" align="alignleft" width="1548"] Classixx[/caption]