not afraid to die

I love a crazy remix. That Pizzy Yelliott one from the last post, it's nuts, though it helps that the cover is pretty nutty too. Still, it ups the insanity and runs around the house with scissors. I grew up always wanting to hear batshit crazy remixes of the music I loved, because I firmly believe the best remixes are the ones where the producers lay everything on the line. The disappointment of a generic remix is intense, so why not go all out when given the opportunity? I remember a friend and I being psyched for the release of remixes for Gnarls Barkley's Crazy way back when, only to find five ultra-generic house mixes that didn't need to exist, and probably never should have been created to begin with.

Now don't get me wrong, I understand the purpose of the remix in the eyes of a record label is to push their product in an environment that normally wouldn't be right for the music in question. With that knowledge, a basic club mix or two makes a lot of sense. Beyond one or two club mixes though, what else would you need? There's a promo for Lana Del Rey's National Anthem single with 16 different mixes, 3 done by Todd Terry. Who paid for that? There's a fucking Das Racist remix on it! That's amazing! Who would've thought to hire Das Racist to remix a Lana Del Rey song? How much coke was the A&R guy who paid them snorting at that moment? Apart from that Das Racist remix though, which is certifiably bonkers, all the other mixes are exactly what you think they are. In case you don't know what that is, they're basic club mixes borrowing a few vocals or speeding up the song and giving it a club beat. That's incredibly boring. If you want to see this ridiculous promo CD, just in case you don't believe me, click here.

With that said, the remix I'm posting here is for Janet Jackson's Black Cat. It's called the 3 Snaps Up 12" and was created by Vaughn Halyard. I've never heard of him before and he doesn't seem to have a lot of remix credits, but damn, he made a killer mix for Miss Janet! This mix is 30 years old and still awesome! So I praise you, Mr. Halyard, and I hope you'll check out this incredible remix of Black Cat, a perfect example of how you're supposed to remix a song!