If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few years, you’ve likely come across Brooklyn-based indie dance pop act Body Language. Currently comprised of founding members Matthew Young and Grant Wheeler, along with Ian Chang and vocalist Angelica Bess, the Brooklyn-based act can trace its origins to when its founding duo had began crafting their own mixes and relies at a weekly party they curated and DJ’d while they were both living in Hartford, CT. And as the story goes, shortly after they had started their party, they met and recruited Angelica Bees, with whom they began writing their own original material, material that wound up comprising their debut effort Speaks.
Interestingly, once the trio of Young, Wheeler and Bees began working on their sophomore EP Social Studies, they had hooked up with Theophilus London on an album — and during those sessions, they met the band’s fourth member Ian Chang who contributes to the band’s latest effort, 2016’s Mythos. Now, if you had stumbled across JOVM during the course of last year, you might have come across a post on “Addicted,” the first single off Mythos — and the single revealed that the quartet went through a subtle change of sonic direction as the single found the act drawing from New Jack Swing and classic house.
Recently, the Brooklyn-based dance act shared Mythos‘ closing track, “Free,” a sensual and shimmering, classic house-inspired track featuring arpeggio synths, Bees’ sultry vocals a chopped up vocal sample and propulsive drum programming to create a song that sounds as though it drew influence from Crystal Waters‘ house music classic “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless).” But along with “Free,” the dance pop act released previously unreleased remixes of “Free” by Wrestlers and the album’s lead single “Addicted,” by Memoryy.
The Wrestlers remix of “Free,” begins with an introduction reminiscent of the introduction of Chaka Khan and Rufus‘ “Ain’t Nobody” before pairing Bees’ sultry vocals with a slick production that balances a retro-futuristic vibe with hyper contemporary recording techniques as it featuring wobbling and distorted arpeggio synths and chopped up vocal sample — and while still retaining the dance floor vibe of the original, the remix manages to push the song in a contemporary direction.
Closing out the singles package is Memoryy’s remix of “Addicted” pushes the song towards goth and industrial-leaning electronica as tense and wobbling, arpeggio synths are paired with cowbell-led percussion and tweeter and woofer rocking beats. And in some way the remix manages to put an accessible spin on an industrial-like production, retaining the dance floor-friendliness and infectious hooks of the original.
