Lushlife Launches Fan Remix Contest

Finished product will also include members of Postal Service, Broken Social Scene and others.

By Blurt Staff

This summer, emcee/producer/multi-instrumentalist Lushlife released his highly-anticipated sophomore full-length, Cassette City, an album that delicately balances a classic hip-hop ethos with the artist's penchant for indie experimentation. Cassette City was met with critical acclaim from alls sides of the musical spectrum, from hip-hop journalists to indie rock bloggers.

With Cassette City continuing to build momentum, Lushlife has embarked on yet another ambitious and genre-defying project using the album's source material. He's recruited his favorite bands, artists, and producers, from the realm of indie music to contribute remixes of key songs from his original LP.

The resulting remix EP, titled Leisure Class/Stick-up Kids, features a far-reaching cast of musicians. With a glitchy jump-up contribution from The Postal Service/Dntel mastermind Jimmy Tamborello, and a soca-tinged [yes, soca] interpretation from Broken Social Scene founder Brendan Canning with producers Ryan Kondrat and John La Magna [me&john], Leisure Class/Stick-up Kids will be, if nothing else, a fascinating experiment.

Other contributors to the project include Toronto electronic-pop dudes, MADRID, London-based low-fi outfit Gentle Friendly, as well as a solo effort from Sleep Whale drummer Spencer Stephenson under the moniker Abacus.  Even Lush's neighbors in Philly, the boys from Brown Recluse, will put their ‘60s-pysch-pop spin on his patented boom-bap sound.

In addition to these official remixes, fans will get a chance to remix a song from Cassette City themselves, via a site launched in cooperation with music industry non-profit, CASHMusic.org. The site: http://lushlife.cashmusic.org. The Tamborello remix is already streaming at the website.

It officially goes live today, October 1st, and will not only give fans a chance to download multi-track stems and upload their own remixes, but will also be a platform for the official remixers to post audio, video, and text, updating fans on their in-progress works. Ultimately, the winning fan-submitted remix will appear alongside the official re-workings on a digital release of Leisure Class/Stick-up Kids.

Leisure Class/Stick-up Kids is a chance to see rap music projected through the artistic prisms of a wide variety of incredible artists. As such, Lushlife is encouraging fan-submissions from a broad swathe of musicians. Whether you're an electronic composer of the most eccentric variety, a folk singer, a dub beat scientist, or even an ordinary hip-hop producer, the Leisure Class/Stick-up Kids remix project is an open-ended outlet to reinterpret, revisit, and recontextualize.