We may have done a disservice leaving Lushlife off our Best Music of 2009 list as his record Cassette City was an excellent sophomore scene stealer. This time around it's Abacus who is putting the Lushlife name back on our tongues as he remixes “Meridian Sound [Part Two].”
Lushlife likes to complicate his style. He samples indie rock with DJ Premiere technique, then turns around and strips classics down to acoustic cores. It seems that our expectations of Lushlife are always being challenged and damnit if it isn't exciting to hear what he's cooked up next.
His latest effort is a remix project, in which producers like Brown Recluse, Dntel and Abacus take his Cassette City gems and apply their science to his labwork. Leisure Class/Stick-Up Kids is a recontextualization of hip hop's boundaries. The Abacus remix of “Meridian Sound [Part Two]” uses Lushlife's words minimally, opting to slowly build from a metronomic percussion meditation into sweeping woodwinds and uplifting choral chants that have this remix orbiting the sun and basking in its warmth.
