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(Capitol/EMI)
Side A: Talk (Junkie XL remix) (11.50)
Side B: Talk (Francois K remix) (9.02)
Whether you love them, loathe them or feel more or less indifferently towards Coldplay (as this reviewer does), it’s fairly difficult to ignore the earnest nice-guy UK stadium rockers at the moment, such is the band’s current ubiquity in the media in the wake of their well-received third album ‘X&Y.’ This third single to be lifted from the album, ‘Talk’ already has a sub-story of interest to electronic music fans behind it, in the sense that it represents one of the few high-profile instances in which the notoriously reclusive Kraftwerk have allowed one of their distinctive melodies to be purloined, in this case, the main melody line from ‘Computerlove’, taken from Kraftwerk’s 1983 album ‘Computerworld’ (and apparently allowed after Coldplay singer Chris Martin wrote personally to Ralf Hutter to request permission). While the more ‘general’ release of this single comes with previously unavailable B-sides, this 12” only edition is more aimed towards the DJ end of the market, with two disparate reworkings supplied by Dutch progressive house / breaks producer Junkie XL (himself no stranger to the high-profile rock remix) and NYC tech-house producer Francois Kevorkian.
On the A-side of this 12”, Junkie XL’s remix certainly conforms to the expected prog-house standard of epic running times, coming in at just under a whopping 12 minutes in length, and in this case, the Dutch producer focuses upon building Sasha-like sheeny atmosphere over a broad canvas, teasing out digitally-processed fragments of Martin’s original vocals over a vast backdrop of brooding bass chords and streamlined 4/4 progressive house beats. While its sheer epic length perhaps presents the biggest potential stumbling block in terms of digestibility, it certainly makes effective use of the original album version’s hooks, the first half effectively setting the scene and slowly building up atmosphere, while the second half throws virtually all of Martin’s vocals and the original glinting Edge-esque guitar line to the forefront.
On the flip, Francois K’s reworking strips things right back for an electro-laden tech-house voyage that slowly gathers inertia with a beautiful sense of space intact, soft beeping electronics threading their way around minimal hi-hats and buzzing analogue synth bass, and in this case, Kevorkian takes the opportunity to tip his producer’s hat to the original Kraftwerk track lurking just below the surface, sending ‘Computerlove’s original glacial synth hook spinning amongst the Carl Craig-tinged sequences. With Chris Martin’s looped vocals evoking a sense of a ghost lurking within the machine amidst the tumbling electronics and a cold robotic ambience present throughout, it easily edges forward as my favourite of the two very different mixes on offer here.
Rock remixes are funny things – witness the case of U2, who constantly invite an extremely impressive range of producers to the table, yet I must confess that I’m yet to hear one completely blinding remix. In this case, Coldplay emerge more or less unscathed from the experience, and whether you’re looking for a reinterpretation that relies on the original’s hooks or one that completely dissembles the track from the ground up, you’ll most likely be satisfied by one of the two sides on offer here.
