Mountain man crooner Bon Iver is responsible for some of the most heartfelt sensitive-bearded-guy ballads since Michael McDonald. His mix of transcendental folk and Hawaiian-shirt wearing yacht rock yielded some pretty sweet records, which we at County Grind may have cried to once or twice. Naw, just kidding. We didn't actually cry. Shut up, OK? Let's not talk about it...
Anyway, Justin Vernon, or Bon Iver, or JV (we prefer JV), in cahoots with Spotify and Indaba Music, is taking the somewhat popular trend of open-source remixing and calling it the Stems Project. Basically, you sign up at Indaba Music, you download all the individual parts of JV's Bon Iver, Bon Iver record, make a remix of whichever song you desire, and submit it. The winner gets a grand for the song and it'll be on Spotify as part of Bonny Bear's remix album. Simple.
Since this contest is marketed more toward bedroom producers (AKA dudes who still make witch house), we'll probably hear a lot of dark dandy-sounding shit. Which is cool, but we wanna hear some real outlandish weirdness. So, here's a list of producers who might actually make a Bon Iver remix sound kinda interesting.
Araabmuzik
At this point, I think Araab can make anything sound fucking great. Dude
made us like a Kaskade song and not really feel that
weird about it. The former Dipset beat-god, MVP-of-the-MPC is a total
badboy on the buttons, and with Bonny's baby-soft guitar strums, we'll
most likely get a chopped-up ignorant club joint for da kids.
Tune to remix: "Beth/Rest"
Diplo
His unofficial title of global cultural curator is one of the weirdest in music, but Diplo is
in the business of being silly as fuck, so guess it works. Starting off
as a producer and mixtape presenter for the sounds of Rio de Janiero and
Kingston, big bruh is a heavyweight now, producing jawns for the likes of Beyonce and
Chris Brown. We're thinking he can add a real marching band and drumline beat
with a sorta Baltimore club vibe.
Tune to remix: ;"Perth"
Mike Will Made It
You probably don't know this dude by face, but you've heard his
signature sample (listen to the first 3 seconds of "No Lie" by 2 Chainz).
MWMI has made the rounds as one of Atlanta's go-to rap producers, making
beats for top dogs like Gucci Mane, Future, and Weezy F Baby. It'd be
interesting to hear Bon Eye-ver get the trap treatment: Drowsy synths, a
Skinny Love sample, and some anvil-to-the-chest sub.
Tune to remix: "Holocene"
Black Dice
What the fuck, why not? Brooklyn noise dudes who deconstruct sounds and
stomp on 'em to make shit-sounds (in the best way). If you saw them a
couple of years back at Culture Room with Animal Collective and stood
through the hour of just loud (maybe a little too loud) racket, you know
what they're about. Fuck it, put some JVern in the mix.
Tune to remix: "Wash"
Clams Casino
This might actually work really well. New Jersey native Clams produces
beats for Soulja Boy and A$AP Rocky, using real Gothic sounding rap shit
to combat the swagu. A match between Clams and Bon Iver would probably
turn out fucking great. Damn, can we just curate this remix
album already?
Tune to remix: "Calgary"
Follow @CountyGrind
