IDLES remix LIFE’s ‘Switching On’

After releasing new track ‘Switching On’ back in March, LIFE’s latest has now got a shiny new remix from long-time pal and IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen.

“I have watched LIFE play live well over 100 times and one thing that I really wanted to maintain through the remix is how incredibly tight they are as a band, so I left everything from the original in there,” Mark says of the industrial new remix. “There was something new they were bringing with the song, there’s that assured LIFE sound central but there are experiments in electronics and noise coming closer to the surface. I wanted to push those ideas further, exaggerate them to the point of becoming violent. I often think a remix should eschew the original vocal, all my favourite remixes are unrecognisable as songs, that felt inappropriate here. Mez stays front and centre where he belongs.”

“‘Switching On’ is an experimental love-song,” LIFE’s Mez Green adds. “When writing the track we homed in on new textures, noises and beats as we continue to fall in love with all aspects of music making, as a result we thought the original single would also work as a remix. Mark Bowen, one of the band’s closest friends, took the helm. Bowen has added some flirtatious sleaze. He has made the track sound like the love you would find coming out the backside of a city at night. It’s seedy, it’s vast and it rains down on you just like IDLES do from their necessary pulpit.”

Have a listen below.