Five of the best: Jamie xx remixes

Image: Jamie xx 

Jamie xx's ability to chop things up and rubber stamp his ingenious craft on a record is so accomplished and vast in number that this piece could be argued from an embezzlement of angles.

Whether you're more receptive to a distorted garage beat, or the idyllic melodies often painted by the acclaimed producer, the most important point of this article is that you'll explore the elusive beat-makers library further. 

We're not even sure that these are five of our best, for the East London producer is continuously pleasuring our ear drums with anything from the cascading bliss of his part in The xx, to more recently the visionary detonation of his solo album In Colour. 

It's an art that he is consistent at pulling an already triumphant number and remoulding its inners with iridescent and fictive appeal. Here, after noodling through each of his reworkings, we give you our five favourite Jamie xx remixes.

Radiohead 'Bloom' (Jamie xx Rework Pt 3) 

When Thom Yorke and co dropped The King Of Limbs in 2011, a wizard-like task force of artists that included Four Tet, Modeselektor, Blawan and Caribou came together to produce a remix album.  

With that came three re-workings of 'Bloom' and Jamie's subsequent celestial spinebuster. Opting for signature sampling, Jamie loses the vocals and elevates the track to levels that can only be experienced in some sort of orgasmic angelic ritual with its marauding steel percussion. 

Florence and The Machine 'You've Got The Love'

Jamie's backlog often veers in one of two directions, the first being immersion in the sounds of the inner city and the second able to set the listeners mind in some sort of idyllic paradise. This track achieves both, with its tropical harps, garage drum beats and a pinging bass line set deeper than an old school eski-beat.  

Adele 'Rolling In The Deep' 

With a voice as imposing as Adele's, there's only one way to go with a 'Rolling In the Deep' rework: stripped back and damn right raw. You could bang Jamie up in a cell with Ableton for a twenty year stretch and this would still manage to make the cut. The mighty crisp claps paired with Adele's unbroken vocal lead this song appropriately into a crib of percussive holiness. 

Four Tet 'Lion'

Jamie's pulled the plug on Hebden's up-tempo original and plunged it into the depths of darkness. With sinister chords that operate from the Amazonian undergrowth amidst a slick 2 step beat, we prefer this to Four Tet's original.  

Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx 'NY Is Killing Me'  

This remix album with Gil Scott-Heron was the catalyst to Jamie's solo success, widening the landscape of his capabilities to a more astute audience. Setting the album in an abstract realm of garage and dub step, Jamie reimagines Gil Scott's original with a sketchy soundscape and Gil's chopped up vocal to sculpt an unrecognisable track to the original. 

Jamie xx plays at Manchester's Albert Hall on Friday 16th October

Read our review of Jamie xx 'In Colour'

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