When electronic duo DJDS shared their remix of St. Vincent’s “Los Ageless” earlier this year, they showed off an ability not necessarily to make the song their own, but to take attributes the original song already had and highlight them in a different way. While the original recording is boisterous and busy, DJDS’ reworking brings it down to its core elements and gets at a vulnerability the album version keeps more buried.
The duo has again taken a crack and reinterpreting St. Vincent, on their new remix of the MASSEDUCTION track based on another big U.S. city on the opposite side of the country: “New York.”
This time, it’s not what they’ve taken away from the song that makes it stand out, but what they’ve added. The core of “New York” is vocals, piano, and strings, all of which work together to swell into a couple of crescendos in its two-and-a-half-minute run time. Whereas these peaks feel like ends to themselves on the original, DJDS incorporates some electronic dance percussion to give them a heightened sense of anticipation, like they’re building towards something, which here turns out to be a big, synthy deep breath out.
Listen to DJDS’ “New York” remix above.
