Diplo’s electrifying performance at Pitchfork Music Festival last weekend showed how his current endeavor, Major Lazer, translates far better in a live setting. But we can’t all catch Diplo up in the clubs, and listening to his dancehall reggae through a pair of headphones sometimes doesn’t cut it. So get him out of there and let’s give Major Lazer some introspection already!
Thom Yorke puts his smart little hands on the barn-burner from Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do, “Jump Up” (via Some Kind Of Awesome). York remixing Diplo is jarring at first, not because it sounds bad, but because their styles are oceans apart, literally. Diplo’s fat bass beat is on the York Diet: thin, trebled, and atmospheric. Add some synth drones like the ones in “Harrowdown Hill” and you have a seriously club un-ready track. With the rawness of Leftside and Supahyp’s vocals and the cavernous production, the elements that are supposed to come together here feel insoluble. But that’s not to say it doesn’t work at times. The whirring bass groove helps bring these two producers together, and if you can deal with with Jamaican flavored hype over a pretty phenomenal “Pro Tools” track, you will like this song.
“Jump Up (Thom Yorke remix)” is available on Major Lazer’s new EP Lazers Never Die, out now via Downtown Records.
