Funky electropop duo Sylvan Esso just did a lovely remix of PHOX’s song “Slow Motion” and it is so deliciously silky and smooth. Sylvan Esso hails from Durham, North Carolina and is made up of vocalist Amelia Meath and producer/genius beat maker Nick Sanborn; together, they make really irresistible and groovy tunes.
Partisan Records labelmates PHOX, meanwhile, are a six-piece self-described as “a bunch of friends from the Midwestern circus hamlet, Baraboo, WI, a place where kids often drink poisoned groundwater and become endowed mutants.” They also make mesmerizingly mellow tunes tied together by Monica Martin’s stunning, velvety voice that you can’t help but fall in love with immediately.
We were already obsessed with “Slow Motion” but Sylvan Esso took the soulful song and gave it even more soul. The remix opens with an intense synth and bass beat, then it gradually introduces Martin’s voice in a delicate but calculated manner, which reaches octaves far, far away. Sanborn replaces the acoustic guitar and a jubilant, contagious clapping from the original with a springy synth, building it up over the course of the song and slowly adding in percussive, chopped snippets of Martin’s vocal to carry it through to the end. It’s a rather perfect pairing, given Meath’s similarly smokey vocals. This latest version of “Slow Motion” crackles and smolders with a completely different vibe from the folksy original; it’s hard to decide which is best.
