George FitzGerald - Burns (HAAi's Sci-Fi Hi-Fi Remix)

August 3, 2018 - Domino/Double Six Records

Most of us will not know what it feels like to blast off of the Earth’s surface. We have all imagined this lift at one time or another, in scientific study, in child’s play, or in a nightmare. Aerospace and science fiction alike both continue to keep the adventurers alive in us, even those of us who are earthbound by fear of living disguised as fear of dying. 

My inner adventurer is impressed with the way HAAi real name Teneil Throssell has taken one of the biggest techno songs of the year and respectfully built a specific and quintessentially 20th-Century sound narrative from it. HAAi’s remix of ‘Burns’ by George FitzGerald feels like those short moments before, during, and after a rocket launches—everything is happening with such great force that time is perceived in slow motion like an ecstatic molasses drop. The pacing of this song suspends us like flies in amber, beautiful and endless in our brevity. Listening, I feel nostalgic for the optimism of the past-future and its dreams of the stars. 

It’s obvious to build a review of this track around references to space travel. But, since the remix is called a ‘Sci-Fi Hi-Fi Remix,’ it is an obvious read that can’t be unheard. And at the risk of sounding trite, I think HAAi leans heavily on an engine metaphor. In the beginning, the ‘Burns’ melody distinctively emerges from what sounds like mechanical idling, continuing on as the common theme through a song which has four distinct parts: idle, build, lift off, departure. The use of a single melody as a common theme to connect disparate moods is a classical approach to song structure. HAAi demonstrates how it is also a successful approach to composition in a modern genre which, on paper, is inherently abstract. Intentionally or not, her remix approach nods to narrative orchestral epics in multiple parts (between which it is not ok for the audience to clap). 

George FitzGerald’s ability to create expansive emotional space on an auditory plane coupled with the way HAAi captivates her audience long enough for a feeling to completely steep into the room results in a rare stimmung. FitzGerald is the tea, HAAi is the infuser, and we are the hot water—feeling blooms in complexity like flavors that interact with our molecular demands. 

George FitzGerald and friends are sharing one remix of ‘Burns’ per month, starting last month with Moby’s remix [link “Moby’s remix” to other review] and continuing this month with HAAi’s. We are thoroughly enjoying the collaborations and are looking forward to the upcoming releases that will carry the revolutionary track all the way through the year’s end. ☔