I’m always stoked when artists put out a capellas from their songs (for easier DJ tricks and mashupping), and it’s even more fun when you get the individual instrument tracks, all split up for your amateur-song-rearranger pleasure. This “here, take it all” attitude is still kind of rare, weirdly enough: you’d think every artist out there would take advantage of the free “wikimixers” out there on the off chance of coming up with an even more awesome version of their song.
Well, at least Spanish-French singer Manu Chao gets it. He’s sponsoring a remix contest for his latest song, “Politik Kills,” which in its original version is a loping reggae number, complete with Chao’s typically hypnotic guitar work, although the first thing I might do is take down the level of the vocals which are a bit on the polemical-lecture side for me. But no biggie. Eighteen new versions have already been posted on his website, including dubby ones from Chris Blackwell and Prince Fatty, as well as a shuffly south-of-the-border style mix from Mexican Dubweiser & Kinky. Watch a fan-made video for the original after the jump, and check out the remixes and download the individual tracks here.
—Party Ben
Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user thetripwirenyc.
