Sunday Best

Nik Furious: Sunday Best: Infinity Well

Wednesday, June 19th, 2013

This has gotta be the laziest beat on Sunday Best! Like the previous track, Infinity Well was originally made for me and me only. But unlike most of the songs on this mixtape, I didn't feel the need to transform this sample into something else. I just wanted to extend the fantastic sound.

Why? Because the intro to Keep It Comin' by The Jones Girls is so fucking hot! Tight drums, funky bass, and smooth synth. If the song didn't come out in 1984, I would say that I must of made it in a previous life.

I first heard Keep It Comin' when I was researching songs produced by one of my favorite funk musicians and songwriters, Keni Burke. I tend to gravitate to songs written and produced by bass players, and Keni's production work with The Jones Girls is no exception.

Thanos stands before the Infinity Well

The title of the song is a tribute to one of Jim Starlin's kickass cosmic concepts. The image above -- by Ron Lim, John Beatty, Tom Vincent, and Ken Bruzenak -- depicts Thanos as he stands before the Infinity Well in The Thanos Quest #1. It's a fascinating and philosophical scene from an amazing story. 

When it came time to title this remix, the splashy and sparse nature of it instantly reminded me of the Infinity Well. The name was a no-brainer!

Nik Furious: Sunday Best: I Was Made to Remix

Tuesday, June 11th, 2013

I Was Made to Remix goes back 15 years to 1998 when I was still in high school. That's when the Jimi Hendrix double disc album BBC Sessions was released, including a version of I Was Made to Love Her.

To explain the significance of the original recording requires a brief explanation of how BBC radio worked in the UK back then. They had certain rules about how much radio music had to be live and how much could be taken from commercial albums. This resulted in a lot of two-track recordings produced expressly for BBC radio featuring popular recording artists. 

In October 1967, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was in the BBC studio recording a few songs. Stevie Wonder was next door. And when Mitch Mitchell stepped out to pee, Wonder sat in on drums and recorded a couple songs with Jimi.

Stevie has a really distinctive drum technique. I have a hard time describing its uniqueness because my drum vocabulary is a bit stunted. But I like what he does! And hearing his loose, funky style accompany Jimi and Noel Redding is fantastic.

Overall, their rendition of I Was Made to Love Her -- which was Wonder's hit song of 1967 -- is just okay. But it's the very end where they play a half-minute of magical music that really captures me. It's got this happy/sad/beautiful/raw combination that often happens while jamming but rarely gets recorded.

So when I was thinking of unconventional songs I'd like to experiment with and remix (sometime in 2008-2009), I Was Made to Love Her came to mind. I wanted to see if I could loop the magical moment and extend it into a full song. And so I did!

I Was Made to Remix was really just made for me personally so I could listen to an extended version of a musical moment that I love. However, when my friend Deniz was spotlighting "Perfect Moments" as the theme for her radio show, Modern Donkey, I gave her a copy of this song and she shared it on her blog.

Also, a listener of hers blogged about that Modern Donkey episode and linked to my song. Deniz responded to him in the comments with a Nik Furious shoutout. You can check out their exchange here.

Nik Furious: Sunday Best: Bustin

Sunday, June 9th, 2013

I'm a huge Ray Parker Jr. fan and for years I longed to sample the classic "bustin makes me feel good" line from Ghostbusters.

But when I finally got around to it, the result was kinda lackluster because "bustin" sounds more like "fustin" when you loop it. OH WELL!!! I still think it's a fun beat despite the fact that the lyric gets distorted.

P.S. But there's a sorta happy ending to this story. I solved the "fustin" problem by editing this beat for the 22 minute Sunday Best mix. The song is way shorter than the version in this blog post, but it's also punchier and full of bustin!