Miscegenation

Have a blast on this, then read on.

Not so long ago, the remix was a record company whip to boost credibility and sales. We'd dance slowly but furiously to Maxi Priest... and oh, how we danced. It was different then.

Steve "Silk" Hurley could slap a few house beats and strings over the new Dannii Minogue single and cash his cheque. We'd pay £1.99 in Our Price every Monday. It all stacked up.

The best remixes take a fantastic song and kick it into a new dimension, even if they date faster than sushi in the process. Norman Cook did it with Cornershop's Brimful of Asha. Andy Weatherall likewise with New Order's Regret. Coldcut brought DJ kicks to UK hiphop heads with their thieving Paid In Full classic. Witness also Orbital's stunning encapsulation of Meat Beat Manifesto's Mindstream.

Credit crunch economics have seen the remixer's art move from the corporate to community and the easy sharing of digital files has led to a reinvigorated culture of cross-pollination among today's underground musicians. Mash-up culture is now our Lingua Franca.

We're no longer children of the sampler, so the old cut and paste metaphor no longer applies. Rather than sticking a DAT in the post, we share stems and we drag and drop.

Which is a convoluted way of introducing you to Tiger Mendoza.

Missing On The Motorway, his mash-up of Everything But the Girl's Missing and DJ Shadow's Mashing On The Motorway recently took joint prize in Shadow's own remix competition on Soundcloud. Tiger's own tunes are even better.

Here's the first fruits of a remix swap between the Tiger camp and Stately Homes of England. It could be the second greatest shoegaze power ballad.

The Stately Belleville project is now on the runway. Click the button below for an in-house remix to whet your appetite.

Quick link to pic disc

The Walrus Variations

I Am The Walrus by Stately Homes Of England

Although it's been a bit quiet here, the Belleville EP is shaping up nicely. The track count has exceeded the acceptable number for an EP so it may surface as more than one project. More bootylicious than the album, it'll be a tonic for fans of The Drum Club, Psychick Warriors of Gaia and lovers of all good pop music. Bear with us a little while longer and all will be revealed.

There is new Stately material over at Soundcoud, including a rip of our first 12" vinyl release and a squelchy version of I Am The Walrus, streaming at the top of this post. Hoping to add a wall of guitars and screaming. Walrus started life as one of the more than 51,000 midi files rescued from Geocities user groups before being put through the Stately Kenwood Chef.

To paraphrase U2, Oasis stole this song and we're stealing it back. After the jump is a link to the complete set of Geocities midi files and the remarkable story of their liberation.

Coney Island baby

Stately's Cheshire bolthole will witness a revival in freeform percussive primitivism in 2010 with the arrival of White Glove's first born. Before this much-anticipated release, work on the Belleville EP is being temporarily suspended to allow for a final trip to New York.

Proper legend Lou Donaldson will be on at the Vanguard: tempting, even if – in what will be the week of his 83rd birthday – the more interesting kinks are long pressed out. We'll also be enjoying gaffs like this, tongues surely bitten as shop staff attempt to educate us in the pleasures of our own exports.

But what of the playlist? Songs referencing NYC are as common as Lonnie Lynn Jr, so we'll go for something new, local and, with pleasing quaintness, out soon as a spiral scratch.

Grace (how low can you go?)

Work continues apace on the Belleville EP, but here's a brief diversion concocted in an evening.

There's nothing more depressing than daytime Radio 1. When spending a day in somebody else's office, it's bad manners to ask them to turn the wireless off. But as Moyles mutated into Fern Britton, then Greg James and Scott Mills, life got more grey by the moment.

It's not so much the pop jocks as the playlist that appalls. Suicide seemed a sensible option after the third play of the latest Editors single. The only bright moment came with the new Britney Spears single, Three.

It's a pop classic and another triumph for the splendid Ms Spears. Courting the necessary tabloid semi-stiffy, Britney sings about three-in-a-bed romps with first wave clean-cut sunshine folkies, Peter, Paul and Mary. It would be bizarre if it wasn't so catchy.

Of course, it's all been done before. Jefferson Airplane's marvellous Triad was a highpoint of liberated 1968. Back then, chicks like Janis Joplin used to trip you up in the street and beat you to the pavement. Grace Slick possessed just the right voice and looks to make the song, written with David Crosby, positively stink with the sort of audio-musk that Britney can only hint at.

Here, in a simple mini-mix, is the Stately remix of Britney's Three followed by the Airplane's Triad. Each a classic in its own sweet way. And, for the record, Lady Gaga can go hang. And our version is better than the original.