Who doesn’t have the fantasy of just dropping everything and hitting the open highway? There are very few notions as romantic as that of giving up your life, most of your physical possessions, and all of your personal connections (familial and otherwise), to strike out on your own. There’s something on the very edge of the horizon, where the asphalt touches the sky, where the literal curve of the earth is putting whatever is in that middle distance just out of sight. It’s potential. No, it’s promise. It’s why a book like On The Road, a travelogue written by a guy who couldn’t stay moored in one place for very long, has endured as a classic for years. You can, or think you can, see where your life is going when you’re ensconced in it. But what’s out there? Just past that great line? It’s everything you want it to be, and so much more.
I’m convinced that Diplo can see what’s beyond the horizon. Otherwise I don’t think he could’ve made transformed Hey by the Pixies the way that he did. That ability is probably a product of his background. As a youngin, Wesley Pentz spent time in various locales throughout the Southern United States. No doubt he was exposed to more cultures and sounds by his teens than most others get to experience over the course of their lives. It’s must be that priceless background that gives him the ability to pull a material or instrumental flourish from any given sound to create the certified bangers he produces at a breakneck pace.
Must be a devil between us…
Hey!”
Hey (Diplo Devil Remix) isn’t some overblown, rocking-too-hard club track. That wouldn’t be true to the source material. The Pixies worked with dynamics better than anybody, period. You couldn’t guess in how many directions a song could go, just that you would be pulled along for a ride that never got boring. It would be a crime if you drove the levels into the red while you were reworking one of their tracks.
Thankfully Pentz keeps the ramshackle, shabby vibe of the original in place. It’s still a clapper of a cut though. Castanets and a kick drum establish the beat and you’re already nodding your head before the bluesy guitars come in. You feel dirty, but it’s a familiar kind of grime. I’ve never felt so comfortable in something that I’ve never known before, and as soon as I feel right at home the song makes me want to MOVE. By the time the harmonica line and the synths start wobbling their way in, I can feel the shaking in my bones. The whole thing is a warm, crackling confection and I know it’ll be a while before I wear this thing out.
