Destiny's Child- Say My Name (A.L.V.Y Remix)

"Say My Name" might be the most over-remixed song in the history of electropop. I wish I could tell you why. I guess from a nostalgic standpoint, this song holds a special place in pretty much everyone's heart aged 19-28. It has an amazing vocal (times 3 really, hooray girl bands), a pretty fantastic percussion beat, and a wonderfully funky wah wah rhythm guitar. Let's clear the air, I'm the first person to stand up and say that popular music, for the most part, lacks any real musical substance. When I hear some prepubescent boy say "baby" and "oh" more than 10 times, I have to physically hold back from strangulating myself. That being said, this song is decidedly NOT that. Anyway, I'm not going to sit here and talk about a song we've all been listening to for over a decade, what I will talk about the Parisian producer, A.L.V.Y's, progressive dream pop take on the R&B classic. This remix is wonderfully balanced. It doesn't really try to change the original too much, simply because it's such a popular song; this is a common pitfall among remix artists. What A.L.V.Y does so masterfully, and the real reason why I chose this remix from the millions (and I do mean millions) of "Say My Name" remixes, is that it effectively uses "dead space" before a musical moment. From the beginning, you get this weird (almost out of place) electro build up, which sets you up for some sort of pseudo-dubstep vibe, but suddenly it drops into a wonderfully melodic dream pop feel. An example of the "dead space" starts at the 1:02 mark. Up to that point, you get a sort of rolling bass drum, which kind of ramps up the anticipation, building and building, until it hits a point (at 1:02) where everything drops out and you just get a staccato synth beat, some quick pulsing chords, and a nice percussion. That concept of "addition by subtraction" isn't used enough by producers today. Which is understandable considering every artist wants their voice (artistic or otherwise) to be as prevalent as possible. But sometimes, less is more, and that is certainly the case here. There's also the added element for us nerds out there, where he adds Toad's "knockout" sound from Mario Kart. Yeah I did notice that, and yes it is awesome. Give both tracks a listen below, including the Destiny's Child music video, because why the fuck not?