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Sep 01, 2021 By Joey Arnone

Today, Julien Baker releases her EP Little Oblivions Remixes, which features reworkings of songs from her most recent album Little Oblivions done by artists Helios, Jesu, Gordi, Half Waif, and Thao. It is out via Matador Records. You can listen to it below.

Gordi speaks about her collaboration with Baker on the remix of “Ringside” in a press release: “I first met Julien in Barcelona in 2017. I’d been a big fan for ages so it was a real pleasure to play a show with her. We spent a bunch of time together at the Eaux Claires festival in 2018 making music—we even played an hour-long improvised set together to a crowd of a thousand people from this treehouse that was like a huge musical instrument with lots of tiny loop pedal stations…it was as weird as it sounds. But because of the way we think about chords and melodies and songwriting, we could really connect on the fly and make something beautiful. I loved having the opportunity to dig through the stems on this new Julien track and reimagine it.”

Thao adds, regarding her remix of “Ziptie”: “I was immediately drawn to ‘Ziptie’ for Julien’s beautiful melodies and haunting, arresting imagery. I knew I wanted to create a lot of different additional sounds and melodies inspired by the lyrics. I pictured a sort of post-apocalyptic, incredulous, acerbic, off-kilter and morose dance party (one of my top 3 dance party themes). I programmed rough sketches of the drum parts and built out the track with synths, bass, guitar, and drum machines. I asked my friend and incredible drummer Jason Slota to record live parts. I edited and patched segments of his drums, and then glued everything together with more synths and vocals. It was an immense pleasure to immerse myself in such beautiful vocal tracks, and I wanted to bring them to the fore as much as possible. I’m so happy I got to remix this song. Thank you Julien!”

Little Oblivions was released back in February on Matador. Baker’s fall tour in support of the album will kick off later this month.

Check out our Why Not Both podcast interview with Baker on Little Oblivions.

Read our 2017 cover story interview with Baker, along with a bonus Q&A.

Also read our 2016 interview with Baker and our 2015 Artist Survey interview with her.

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