Future Islands – Little Dreamer (feat. Victoria Legrand) (Jones Remix)

Click on the turntable on the left to listen to a continuous stream of music featured on Pretty Much Amazing - updated every day. For more, you can check out the Best Songs of 2012.

Photo by Pedro Rivera

Here’s another opium dream for you, music lovers. Get your headphones on and prepare to float downstream to this downtempo remix of the already pensive ballad “Little Dreamers” by Baltimore synth-poppers Future Islands.

All credit for the fantastic minimalistic retouching on the track goes to Jones, a remix artist who uses his psychedelic style primarily on hip hop but has done well in showing his electro-versatility on this indie mix.

Here, the craft is all in the way he’s sparingly added just a few elements: a series of hi-hat hits, a resounding kick beat, a heartbeat pulse of snare taps, all cut-up, stitched together, and put on the pillow of the original melody.

Not only that, but Jones had Beach House’s Victoria Legrand, Baltimore’s polka-dotted queen of ethereal vocals, to lend some vocal airs on the track. She barely even exhales on it and it sounds great. Unlike most of the remixed drivel you hear around the hype machine these days, the way this one artfully expands on the tone of the original piece (instead of just mashing it up beyond recognition, adding a big beat and a Daft Punk sample or whatever) makes it worth your ears and perhaps a daydream or two.

by Josh Cabrido on November 23, 2009 ‡ 4 reactions