So this review is going to be a bit unconventional. The reason for this is quite simply. I don't actually like both of the tracks. I LOVE Stwo's (pronounced "stew") remix, as I love most of his work, but this is a rare case where you get a fantastic remix born out of an original track that honestly just isn't that good. The Norwegian producer, Lido, ironically ends up getting a bit lost in his original track "Lost." Where does he get lost you might ask? Well.... everywhere really. I should preface this whole discussion by saying that I personally am a
huge fan of progressive beat structures and unconventional melody formation. As an example, the New Swoop we wrote on Baths was one of the most unanimously positive reviews we've ever written.
The issue with attempting to build such a progressive track, like Lido does here with "Lost," is that oftentimes you end up doing bizarre things just for the sake of doing them. What happens here is that this track lacks any real cohesion or musical ideology. What I mean is that it really just feels like an assortment of unusual beats and questionable melodic additions (like the occasional descending minor arpeggio in the synth at 0:19, that just feels so out of place it's uncomfortable). Let me really get at what I'm talking about with some more concrete examples. The track starts with just vocal and a very minimalist beat and the occasional hard hitting synth chords. The issue is that when you start a track
that bare bones, you need to eventually support it with either a really robust melody or a consistent flowing beat. You have to set up the contrast somehow. But that literally never happens. The
entire song, whether focusing on the beat or the melody, never falls into a flow or anything resembling a cohesive percussion or melody. Not to mention that the vocal is basically only two repetitive lines after the first 30 seconds, "I was lost, I was somewhere lost" and "you love it, you love it, youuuu yeahhhhhh."
Like, that's great and all and you by no means have to have a fully lyrical vocal line, but if you decide to go that route, why would you then have a minimalist instrumentation where the percussion cuts out for for long periods and comes back only to mirror and punctuate the vocal (like when you get the 1-2-3-4 of a measure with 4 bass hits that exactly mirror "I was some-where" like at 2:32). Anyway, that's enough of that, I just don't like it. But that makes Stwo's remix
even more impressive. The Parisian DJ basically has nothing to work with and what he ends up doing is giving the track all of the things it so desperately desires in the original; including, but not limited to, a consistent percussion and melody (shocking I know). He also starts minimally, with just sustained synth chords and a simple smooth beat, which eventually all cut out to set up the real star of the piece, those fantastically well produced banging synth chords starting at 0:40. This track, in contrast with the original, effectively passes from full sound to more simple constructs. This is how an artist builds tension in a piece, and it's exactly what is missing from Lido's original. Add to that Stwo's natural production talent and you get the masterpiece that we have here. I would point to this track as a prime example of why remixing and remix artists should still be held in the same regard as those who make original tracks. Being able to take a less than successful track like Lido's "Lost" and turning it into a cohesive and well produced track like Stwo's remix is what makes remixing so much fun. So please comment below with your thoughts and suggestions!
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