Many turn-of-the-millennium DJs and electronic acts liked to counterbalance their dance floor anthems and manic breakbeat collages with the occasional slow, contemplative track.
Groove Armada did it sometimes. DJ Shadow did it often. Even Daft Punk interrupted the 70-minute dance marathon that was their “Discovery” album with the dreamy, oddball song Nightvision.
Fatboy Slim, however, was not one for slowing things down.
He knew how to build dancefloor energy. I remember seeing an interview with him once in which he spoke in obsessive detail about using breakdowns and build-ups to get the most energy from a crowd. How many bars long a song’s breakdown should be, how long the ensuing build-up should be; he was committed to this energy-building gimmick to the point that he even had a track called “Build It Up – Tear It Down.” He believed in the formula, and he perfected it.
His 1998 full-length, “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” was a crossover success, and songs like “Rockafeller Skank” and “Praise You” took Fatboy Slim’s music out of the club and into commercials, movies, TV shows, and video game soundtracks. I love that album and listened to it constantly at the time.
Great as it is, that album is relentless. No slow-down track, no time for a breather.
So I’m grateful to Maribou State for giving us an idea of what a Fatboy Slim song would be like if it the energy wasn’t cranked to 11 the whole time.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. I’ve always liked remixes that begin by establishing themselves as their own songs. Here, we get 100 seconds of mood setting before the recognizable vocal hook of the original comes in.
2. When the vocals do come in, the underlying chords are brooding and minor, rather than the major-key ebullience of the Fatboy Slim version.
3. While Maribou State doesn’t crank the energy to 11, it’s not exactly a slow jam either. It’s not going to make you go wild on a dancefloor, but by the 5-minute mark there’s at least enough momentum to make you shimmy in your chair and remember the days when you used to go wild on a dancefloor.
Recommended listening activity:
Enjoying the de-alcoholized version of your favourite cocktail.