Haunting Ethiopian flutes… field-recorded audio fragments from a local junkyard… the outrageously expensive Fairlight CMI sampler… Gabriel brought together all these elements and much more over an 18 month period. The process of writing and producing the album is truly eye-opening. Lesson learned from Gabriel: Less is more. The often tortuous process he went through resulted in hundreds of hours of studio recordings, which were often stripped down to only a few minutes of material for each track.  But the journey he undertook is inspiring. 

Greets… BBC Asian Network asked me to do a special mix for the Friction radio show hosted by Bobby Friction. It’s for a producer showcase called Reproduced. It was on today at 10:00 PM GMT (5:00 PM EST). They’ll also have the show archived on the Friction website if you want catch it later. Downloadable podcast available too (UK listeners only).

Friction on BBC Asian Network

Get my 20 minute Reproduced mix here (link goes away in a week):
http://www.yousendit.com/download/Q01HQk14ZEtJMHRFQlE9PQ

KAUSHIK - FRICTION REPRODUCED TRACKLIST - August 19 2008

Artist — Track
1. Brown Sounds - Panchgani
2. Kaushik - Song of the Valley
3. Karsh Kale - Manifest (Kaushik Ambient Remix)
4. Steve Spacek - Dollar (Kaushik Remix)
5. Temple of Sound - People’s Colony No. 1 (Kaushik Dub)
6. KidGusto feat. See-I - Fed Up (Kaushik & Rusty B. Remix)
7. Karsh Kale feat. MC Napoleon Solo - Manifest (Kaushik Alternate Remix)
8. AR Rahman feat. Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan - Gulfisha (Kaushik Remix)
9. Outro/Credits

Thanks for listening!

Update:  Just heard the Reproduced segment and had to share Bobby’s reaction. He was heavily medicated due to a neck injury of some sort. Here’s what he had to say after he heard my set:

“Wow that was like a meditation, it was like a dreamscape he managed to mold from his beats and music. We just shut up and closed our eyes and nodded our heads… If he treats women like how he treated that music in terms of having an eye for beauty and the right sort of vibe, he’s going to be a very lucky man.” 

I think Bobby needs to hurt his neck more often! Thanks to BBC Asian Network, Bobby and Meera for the opportunity to do the mix.

Here’s a brand new remix I just finished up. It’s a breakbeat version of “Gulfisha” from the upcoming Bollywood production “Ada - A Way of Life.”  It’s an A.R. Rahman composition — supposedly he’s one of the top 25 biggest selling artists in the world (based on sales of CDs and cassettes of his soundtracks)??  I believe it, I’m a huge fan of his work; the man is a genius.

The vocals by Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan come courtesy of the Nokia India sponsored AR Rahman remix contest.  Bobby Friction and Nihal were kind enough to include my remix on two BBC Radio shows (their Radio One show and Bobby’s BBC Asian Network show) just a day after I sent it to them.

Here it is… enjoy!

[Audio preview available at http://vrble.com]
AR Rahman - Gulfisha (Kaushik Remix) feat. Sonu Nigam & Sunidhi Chauhan

Although the Seiji remix of Erykah Badu’s “Honey” has been circulating in blogland for a bit now, it might be new to you as it was to me. The Honey vocals (and some others) have been floating around for the last few months and I see remixes popping up regularly. The Seiji rework stands out — it’s a familiar break that I can’t recall, with a massive bassline. I picked this up from Diplo’s Mad Decent blog. Anyways here it is once again.

[Audio preview available at http://vrble.com]
Erykah Badu - Honey (Seiji Remix)

Rusty took a dubbed out approach to the remix with loads of effects over his Funk Weapons style beats, and I added in bass, keyboard and guitar bits.  Frank Cueto from AGFA mastered the remix for added punch.  This is a sneak preview of the official release which hopefully should be out on 12″ vinyl later this year.

Be sure to check out KidGusto’s KG Originals available through Groove Distribution (CD) and Turntable Lab (download).

[Audio preview available at http://vrble.com]
Fed Up (Kaushik and Rusty B. Dub Remix)
Feat. Rootz and Zeebo of See-I
Remix and additional production by Rusty B. (AGFA) and K. Mukerjee 

I definitely didn’t do this alone — my coding skills are pretty limited so I depended on easy-to-use tools that I strongly recommend.  They include:

• Wordpress 2.5.1 by Automattic
• Wordpress Cutline theme by Chris Pearson
• Random header image generator, also by Chris Pearson
• Audio plug-in by Martin Laine at 1 Pixel Out

Thinking about all this leads to this attempt to define my philosophy on remixes. In part this is also due to the time I’m spending working on a couple of remixes of Karsh Kale’s “Manifest.” I’ve been wondering why I do remixes, and this is an attempt to define my approach.

1. To work on a remix, there has to be something in the original song that inspires me. I have to feel moved in some way. The inspiration could come from something specific, like the lyrical content. Or, it could be something general like the ‘vibe’ of the song or the sound of the singer’s voice. Without that connection to the source material, I won’t do a remix. So in a sense, the decision to do a remix is inherently personal and selfish. Not a bad thing per se, because without that personal connection the remix would probably be crap.

2. I approach a remix as a complete reinvention of the original song. Thinking that I can somehow improve on someone else’s creation would be conceited. But, doing a remix gives me an opportunity to put a personal stamp on the original song. I suppose this is one reason I enjoy doing remixes — I never know where inspiration is going to take me. Because the only limitation is my own imagination, I am free to go wherever I want with the remix. In fact, there are times I won’t listen to the original song — I might focus just on the vocals alone and see what it inspires me to do. In reality, I will listen to the original track as a reference point to understand what’s happening with the melody and arrangement. But this serves just as a departure point for my own take on it. In most of the remixes I’ve done, the only remaining artifact from the source material is the vocal. In other words, I like to strip the song down to its most basic element — the voice — and rebuild it from scratch with my own melodies, rhythms, structure, textures and atmosphere. I like to think of this as a radical reimagining of a song’s potential.

3. I also like to think of a remix as a way of capturing the different personalities that often lurk in the original song. If I find enough layers of meaning and emotion in the song, it can move me to create different versions of the original. For instance, in the “Manifest” remixes I am working on, I hear two very different personalities: strident social commentary (thanks to MC Napoleon) and emotional longing (found in the Indian classical vocals). The two personalities are interwoven in the original song. I thought it might be interesting to unravel the threads and create two different versions that highlight the different aspects of the song. So, one of my versions brings Napoleon to the forefront, and has a rough and raw edge to it. The other version is softer, more contemplative, and prominently features the Indian vocals. I’m also thinking of a similar approach to some remixes I’m working on for Sharaab.

4. I don’t think of remixes in terms of genres. For a long time, remixes have been a way of extending the market appeal of a song by expanding into market niches and audience environments where the song might not be heard. For instance, house remixes of Top 40 artists give underground credibility to mainstream artists, and ensure that their tracks are heard by a broader swath of the general public than just commercial radio audiences. This explains why remixes are market-specific – the latest Janet Jackson single will have a house mix, rap mix, R&B mix, dancehall version etc, etc. The same goes for all forms of underground electronic music, where remixes are genre-specific, but are also more tuned to DJs needs for different mixes to suit different environments, times of night, etc. Thus you see floor-filler house and trance remixes of an original track on the A side, and dubby/chilled versions on the B side. All this makes marketing sense. The down side, though, is that the remix genre has gotten a bad reputation. A “remix” is often seen as the original song laid on top of a different beat. (I won’t even discuss the whole terribly cheesy remix industry in Bollywood; 99% of those remixes are utterly craptastic.) So I guess what I am saying is, when I do a remix, my goal is not to produce something that will work within a certain dance genre. I think if I started off the remix thinking “This is going to be a main room breaks mix with a trance feel” then the remix will be doomed from the start.

5. A remix is not a “mash up.” I’m tired of this word; it’s time to retire it from the English language. (I reserve the right to use it when I can’t think of a better word.) A mash-up is taking MIA’s “Pull Up the People” a capella vocal and laying it over the instrumental version of Amerie’s “One Thing.” That’s technically a mash-up, and that mash-up in particular is a pretty good one. Another mash-up overlays Nelly Furtado’s “I’m Like a Bird” with Asha Bhosle’s “Dil Cheez Kya Hai” from Umrao Jaan. The result is pretty horrifying, as you might imagine. In any case, you can’t label the mixing up of disparate audio elements into a new track a “remix.” At least not the way I define a remix: a radical, highly personal transformation of an existing. Specifically, a remix that consists of 100% new instrumentation, beats, melodies, arrangement and so forth is, really and truly, a bonafide remix. That’s the standard that I strive for in my remixes.

6. The last element of my remix philosophy is simple: if I get the source tracks for free, then I give away my remix to anyone and everyone interested, to freely share, copy and distribute. It usually takes me several hours or days to do a remix, with no financial gain when it’s done. I do all the production in my home studio, including the audio mastering. My time and effort is more than recouped by getting my sounds out there and hopefully gaining a bigger audience over time. After all, giving stuff away for free is the drug pusher’s pricing strategy: I’ll get you on the “comeback”, as Chris Rock said.

Thanks to the “Snadder” show for featuring the remix. Full playlist below.

1. Bilal – Hands Of Time (Interscope)
2. Torun Eriksen – Way To Go (Jazzland/Sonet/Universal)
3. Goapele – Catch 22 (Skyblaze/Columbia)
4. Musiq – Onenight (Def Soul)
5. Ghostface feat Ne-Yo – Back Like That
6. Madlib – Friends (Foes) (Stones Throw/VME)
7. Remy Ma feat Big Pun – Thug Love (SRC/Universal)
8. Al Green – Love And Happiness (Hi)
9. Prince - Satisfied (NPG/Universal)
10. Prince – Little Red Corvette (Warner)
11. Prince – Lolita (NPG/Universal)
12. Steve Spacek – Dollar (Kaushik Remix) (white label)
13. Nate James – The Message (One Two)
14. Mink DeVille – Help Me To Make It (Power Of A Woman’s Love) (Atlantic)

Listen to the show here. Full playlist below.

FEBRUARY 17, 2006
Hosted by: Andrew Jervis (Ubiquity)
Featuring Special Guest Mix by Shawn Lee

Masa Collective - Love is Everywhere (Especial)
Ray Barretto - Acid (Fania)
3 na Massa - Thalma (cd-r)
Shawn Lee - Gerrard Street (Ubiquity)
Steve Spacek - Dollar (Kaushik remix) (CD-r)
Nino Moschella - Better Off (Ubiquity)
Shawn J Period - The Come Back (Rude)
Dudley Perkins - Title Unknown (Stones Throw)
Dena Deadly - 1608 (cd-r)
Bluemind - Stay Alive (cd-r)
Jazztronik - Cannibal Rock (Especial)
Incognito - Show Me Love (Yam Who mix) (Dome)
Radio City - Voices (Ubiquity)
MJ - Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (AJ remix) (Rebtuz)