Van She, in my opinion, is one of the best bands in existence right now. In fact, they’re one of the best bands of this decade, and probably the last one, too. And yet they’re hardly known outside of the musical sphere in which they exist.
I’ve been a pretty big fan of Van She for about four years now, since back in 2005 when they emerged from the sunny sands of Sydney, Australia. Though at the time they had only released a self titled EP with a few tracks on the ultra hip Australian label, Modular. And what amazing tracks they were. Modular described them as “a new band from Sydney, fresh on ideas, fresher than Flavor Flav, fresh like coriander, fresher than the Fresh Prince.” But they then remained deafeningly silent for years, releasing some remixes and a random track here and there. I always wondered why the hell haven’t I seen an album from these guys? And then finally last year the Aussie boys decided to release their debut, aptly titled, V. And it is great. And watch out for my review of it shortly so you get an in depth look at the gents from down under. But for the mean time we shall skip the contents of their stellar debut and stick with some remixes.
.“Kelly”
Kelly was the track that made their name and they revamped it for their debut. Like much of their sound, the song is fun electro, 80s new romantic, heavy on the syntheziers and indulgent on the pop. It has that old time flavor of teenage nostalgia, “Kelly was a young girl, looking in the mirror, doing what young kids do.”
.Cut Copy Remix
Of course Cut Copy will do the best remix of this track. And they start it off with a killer, fuzzy, distortion and soft, heavy breathing. The song’s structure is similar to the original cut, it’s just slowed by a hair, dubbed heavier with drum machines and pricked with distorted synthesizers and electronic riffs. If you’re in the mood for electro grunge, this is your calling. The vocals are fiddled with a bit whereby they seem like a slurring of slower scratched words. A fashionable fit for the less poppy and the more moody.
.M83 Remix
M83 slows things down to a halt here and make this mix a dreamy, spaced out wonderland. You’re lost in another world and I can’t help think that world would be in a Super Mario Brothers video game, surrounded by Princesses, Mushrooms, big green bushes and long grassy meadows. A very, different, atmospheric melody is what this mix is about. The synths are soft and streamlined, acoustic guitars splash down in the middle and symphonic melodies abound. The vocals are dreamy and speak with delicacy.
.Lifelike Remix
Lifelike does this with a little more power. To be honest, I can’t tell this apart from the original much. It has a little more of a hum, a little speed, starry, twinkling synth riffs, and a little touch of disco, with the lyrics in the end tapering off to a mechanical echo.
