GRAMMY-nominated atmospheric electronic music artist Bonobo has launched his own OUTLIER label in partnership with Ninja Tune. Its debut release is a lively throwback house track entitled "Heartbreak," a collab with fellow U.K.-born, Los Angeles-based alt-electro producer Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. The track nods directly to electronic music's New York City disco roots, with a sample of Class Action's 1983 bop "Weekend."

The single premiered today as British DJ/tastemaker Annie Mac's "Hottest Record In The World" and is slated for a 12-inch vinyl release on Nov. 13, which will feature the duo's sunrise-hued instrumental B-side "6000 Ft."

Related: Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs Finds Calm During COVID-19 With New EP Featuring Birds

The OUTLIER imprint follows the popular club shows and festival stage takeovers of the same name that Bonobo, a.k.a. Simon Green, launched back in 2016 at Brooklyn's iconic, now-closed club Output and has since held in many cities around the world.

He says the new label will "reflect the more club-focused side of what I'm building with OUTLIER. 'Heartbreak' seems like a good starting point and was the track that became the catalyst to start the label. One for the dancefloors in a time when they're dearly missed."

While Green and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs a.k.a. Orlando Higginbottom, have been playing at each other's shows and exchanging demos for a few years already, "Heartbreak" is their first release together.

"Orlando was playing me a fairly stripped back idea he had for something last year. We spent a few afternoons in his studio trying ideas out and eventually, 'Heartbreak' was the end result," Green said in the press release.

"Now more than ever it feels important to be putting out dance music with deliberate acknowledgment of its history. It's great to be releasing music with Simon, not to mention the first release on his label," Higginbottom added.

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Given that a remix is an edit of an existing, complete song, one could assume it's easier to craft than an original track. The 2024 GRAMMY nominees for Best Remixed Recording prove otherwise: When done right, the remix is a rather painstaking craft that can give entirely new life to a song, even ones you already thought were perfect.

The nominees for Best Remixed Recording demonstrate the breadth and magic of the remix. Alt-jazz group BADBADNOTGOOD amps up and expands on Turnstile and Blood Orange's "Alien Love Call," while DJ/producer Dom Dolla turns the Gorillaz collab with Tame Impala and Bootie Brown, "New Gold," into a trippy dance floor heater. Chicago house legend Terry Hunter gives an unreleased '90s Mariah Carey track, "Workin' Hard," a timeless house groove. Dance pop artist Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs speeds Lane 8's instrumental piano house ballad "Reviver" into a bright jungle gem, and Wet Leg's debut remix is a dark dreamy disco edit of Depeche Mode's "Wagging Tongue."

GRAMMY.com recently spoke to all six nominees about their nominated songs, what constitutes a great remix and their favorites remixes of all time.

Congrats on your nomination! What does it mean to you to be nominated for the GRAMMY for Best Remixed Recording and to be acknowledged by your peers in this way?

Dom Dolla: I mean, it's the highest honor in music. I never thought it would be something that I would be considered for. Funnily enough, my manager said his gut feeling was it would have been for a remix first because that's where I started. I started as a DJ and when I moved into music production, I started off by remixing things and became known within the scene for remixes. This was before I delved into learning to be a lyricist and a songwriter. It's kind of like finally getting the nod for all of those remixes I punched out over the years.

Terry Hunter: Man, it is really dope to go back-to-back with this [category] with two major, iconic artists. [Editor's note: Hunter earned a nod last year for his remix of Beyoncé's "Break My Soul."] Each time, I wasn't expecting it. 

Most of the Best Remixed Recording [2024 nominees] are dance records. I'm from Chicago, the city that birthed house music, so to have that represented on such a major level is really amazing. That's a great achievement in my opinion.

Wet Leg guitarist Josh Mobaraki: It's f—ing crazy, so cool. We had literally no idea that was gonna happen. We had so much fun making it. We'd never done a remix before; we're a band and were just wondering what people might expect. It's really encouraging and exciting. 

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: First of all, it is my second nomination in my career, so I can persuade myself that it's not a fluke…it makes me think that maybe I do have a seat at the table. Also, the track that got nominated is surprising to me. It's not something I thought a lot of people would understand and certainly not put forward for a GRAMMY nomination. It's not a commercial remix or a style that's often recognized by institutions. I'm really pleased about that, because I think the only way that this could have got through is that people really listened to it.

BADBADNOTGOOD producer and drummer Alexander Sowinski: It’s a huge honor! We honestly never thought we would achieve something like this and to be recognized by an institution like the GRAMMYs is amazing.

How did you approach remixing the nominated track?

Dom Dolla: This was actually one of the most fiddly remixes I've ever done. I'm a huge fan of Gorillaz, Booty Brown and Tame [Impala] and I just wanted to get it right. Knowing that it was the only remix that they were going to do for [2023's Cracker Island], I was like, I can't f— this up. So, I approached each section individually. I had one entire Ableton session built upon drums and toms, one for sound design, one for sampling the record and using interesting delays, one for chords, and then I put them all together. There were hundreds of channels as opposed to 40 or 50 like I would normally have.

It was the third attempt [that finally worked]. It took a bit longer than a remix normally would for me. At my first solo show at the Shrine in L.A., I opened with it and the crowd reaction made me feel, Yep. We're onto something.

Terry Hunter: I got the call that [Mariah Carey] was working on this 30th anniversary remix project of the Music Box, her first album. [They asked me to remix] "I've Been Thinking About You." I love that song. I mean, Mariah is the diva of all divas, and she shows it in every way with her amazing vocal performance. When Mariah came out [onto the music scene], I had a major crush on her, so that made it even more special.

I was even more humbled and shocked that once she had heard what I did, they called me to remix another record for an unreleased song that she recorded in 1993, produced by C&C Music Factory. In the '90s, C&C Music Factory ran it — they were the number one guys to go to for production and remixes — I had to do them justice on the unreleased track. The original has that classic '90s C&C feel to it and to go more house, more soulful, a more gospel feel with it was really amazing. It's a reproduction in my opinion.

Wet Leg (Josh Mobaraki): Hester [Chambers] was like, "Let's do a disco song," which is basically her response to quite a lot of "What are we gonna do?" I'd seen other remixes of Depeche Mode, which are a lot of quite long electronic tracks. We found another way to do something in a similar vein but a little bit closer to us. We just played and experimented and that first session was really great and fun. 

Then Ellis [Durand] came around to do the bassline and we spent the whole evening trying every single different bassline that we could come up with and ended up on a single note. Hester wrote and performed the new vocal on the remix. And she picked up a flute — really, a piece of bamboo with some holes in it — and it just happened to fit. We wrote around that and then plopped the lead vocal. Rather than affecting it loads and loads, we sped the whole thing up and that brought a new timbre to the vocal.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: I get asked to do a lot of remixes and there has to be a few things that are right for me to say yes. I have to like the project and want to be part of it — because you're then forever part of it — and I have to like the music. I have a lot of respect for Lane 8 and the world and career he's built. I liked the song because it was a very upfront EDM track, in the original form of EDM from 2010, 2011: big drums, big synth melody, what I would call kind of trance-y and very emotive. 

I took bars two to six of the eight-bar chord sequence and built my remix around those bits because that's where the lush stuff was for me. Once I found my mood with it, I went to 165 BPM or so — it was probably 120 to start. I tried doing a couple of house mixes which didn't feel exciting to me at all, probably because he'd already done a big four-four version of his idea. I basically did a (melodic) jungle remix, which is really fun for me because that's the first type of music I started making when I was a teenager and the thing that got me into music. I'm really grateful that he allowed me to take that risk because now there's a GRAMMY nomination. [Chuckles.]

BADBADNOTGOOD: The track came together in a pretty informal way. We were sent the stems for the Turnstile song and ended up jamming with a few friends in our studio in Toronto.

How do you generally approach remixes?

Dom Dolla: You're a lot more limited. When I'm listening to something someone asked me to do a remix of, I'll often listen to the vocal and the main hook elements, to see if there are things that stand out. As I'm listening, I try to delete the other elements in my mind.

If it's a melodic vocal like Damon Albarn's sung part in ["New Gold"], I'll imagine the mood I want to convey by changing the chord progression behind it. [The song has] these little ad-lib vocal rap parts and little grunts as well that I liked. I pick the elements that I really like and compound all my favorite sections and delete everything else that I don't think I'll use in the remix and limit myself to the sections that I love. Then I change the chords and get weird with production and stuff. And then drums are a whole other thing. I treat drums separately.

Terry Hunter: I still have the same formula. With a remix, for me, everything starts with the drums. They have to be in the pocket and then I start building from there. If I'm sitting down with any of my musicians, we may come up with a bassline or some chords. But before any of that, I gotta have the drums 75 percent done, because that's gonna tell the direction of where we're gonna go with the remix.

Wet Leg (Josh Mobaraki): Obviously, we [haven't made other remixes]. I've been making beats in my bedroom for 10 years and when I was younger, I was doing the band thing. [With this remix], I got to do my thing, in a way. Like every other bedroom producer, I spend a lot of time making four- or eight-bar loops. I love writing music with a computer. I've spent ages trying to work out how to make the sounds that I really love from other records, or even sounds that I don't really like so that I can sort of like them. 

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: I'm looking for what I love in the original and I try to focus on and build something around that. For me, it's a really fun opportunity to do a particular kind of creative work where you kind of kick a ball of string down a hill and see where it ends up. I don't go into them knowing exactly what I want to do. You're re-presenting somebody's musical idea through a new lens, and I think it should feel like you've really gone there creatively and intellectually and pushed it. I think even the remixes that appear very simple still do that, the good ones.

It's definitely a big creative endeavor for me, maybe more so than writing original music sometimes. With original music, you might not turn an idea upside down and shake it out as much. With remixing, I'll take every sound that the artist gives me and I'll try and make something new out of it. I imagine other people approach it very differently.

BADBADNOTGOOD: Generally, we like to isolate the vocal track and take it out of context as much as possible. For this one, we thought the tone and timbre of Brendan [Yate]’s voice really sounded interesting over our groove and gave it a different feel. We also had a lot of fun with the dancey section over Dev Hynes’ [a.k.a. Blood Orange] bridge.

Does remixing feel like a separate muscle from making your own productions or collabing with another artist?

Dom Dolla: Remixing is a similar creative muscle but with a bit of a different mindset. It’s often a balance of re-imagining the hooks within the original record by surrounding them with a different mood or energy. I’ve always been super selective about remixing tracks for that exact reason, I never try to force it or use elements from the original that I don’t love. Writing original music is much more of a blank slate, which can make it as daunting as it is exciting.

Terry Hunter: It definitely is a different muscle that you're using because with remixes you have no control over the song. You have to make your idea of what you're feeling with the song and you have to work around that. And sometimes you have the pleasure of working with artists where the vocals were a little different and you ask if they can recut them to the music. That sometimes gives it a better feel to make it sound more original or organic. In the case with Mariah and Beyoncé, the vocals were perfect so there was no need to recut.

When you're collaborating with people, it's always great. It's a different energy because someone might come up with a sample or a bassline and that might trigger some drums and a chord progression.

Wet Leg (Josh Mobaraki): I over-intellectualize it a bit and then the girls are both, "Let's just have fun." And then I'm like, "Oh, yeah, let's do that."

[The remix] felt a bit like when we started making "Chaise Longue" and Wet Dream. That was me, Hester and Rhian [Teasdale] in this flat that we're talking to you from now, and that's the same place that me and Hester started this remix. 

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: Yeah, it does. I think I have a remixing style that's separate from my original music production stuff. I think it's a part of my character as a musician that's slightly different from my other bits, if that makes sense. [Laughs.]

BADBADNOTGOOD: Absolutely, it’s a nice in-between because we can lean on the artist’s vocals and figure out a unique way to support it. It makes the initial writing process fun because you have such a strong starting point already. 

What do you think makes a great remix?

Dom Dolla: It depends on the intention, I suppose. If we're talking about house music, I think it's about great drums, great bassline, great hooks and it working on the dance floor. I think the intention of a great remix is giving it a new direction and introducing it to a whole different audience who wouldn't normally listen to it. For me, it's What are the parts of the song that I love and how do I introduce that to the house music world?

Terry Hunter: When you remix a record, the [original] artist or label is calling on that particular remixer to try to adapt what it is that you do sonically so you can stay true to yourself and your fans but also pay respect and complement the original. A remix is a hard thing to do. But technology allows people to make, in my opinion, lazy music. It can be quick and onto the next, but the feeling is not there, it's kind of cookie cutter-ish.

I think as long as you pay homage to the original and stay true — and even if you don't, sometimes you can just strip everything from it, and just come up with your own creative ideas. There's no right or wrong way. I feel there's no rules in music. It's just, when you hear that song, does it do anything for you?

Wet Leg (Josh Mobaraki): Sometimes a remix or a mashup almost feels like a magic trick. If you can make that feeling, that's really amazing. Usually that [happens by] recontextualizing a song that you really love. 

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: When something really has its own flavor. A [good remix] takes a step back from the original source material, and you can hear that. There is always an element of deconstruction and reconstruction, and I think people like hearing that. Even with the very first ideas of the remix with the 12-inch mix and singles in the '80s and '90s, people enjoyed hearing the extended intros and outros. We still enjoy that; hearing the ideas spread out and chopped up.

BADBADNOTGOOD: Really just hearing elements of artists’ work taken out of context and infused with the energy of whoever is doing the remix is so fascinating.

What are some of your favorite remixes of all time by other artists and what makes them special?

Dom Dolla: The trentemøller remix of "Moan" is one of my favorites. It has really interesting sound design that stands the test of time. It's always just been really quirky and interesting. I feel like if it came out now, it would be really relevant and cool. The Thin White Duke remix of "What Else Is There" by Röyksopp is a melodic, euphoric, favorite moment of mine, I love playing that in sets.

Terry Hunter: I'm gonna have to shout out Masters at Work. They're good friends of mine so I'm being biased but not really because I get inspired from their work. They've remixed Saint Etienne, BeBe Winans, Madonna, Roy Ayers; everybody under the sun. Also, big shout out to David Morales and the late, great Frankie Knuckles, all of who are both GRAMMY winners and an inspiration for me for remixes and DJing.

[Picking] a favorite remix is so tough. It's not a remix, but it's a cover of a song by Rotary Connection; "It's All Right, I Feel It" by Masters at Work [as Nuyorican Soul] featuring Jocelyn Brown is probably one of my favorites. And Frankie Knuckles' remix of "The Pressure" by Sounds Of Blackness. David Morales has done a lot of major things but his remix of Jamiroquai "Space Cowboy" was massive.

Wet Leg (guitarist and vocalist Hester Chambers): That's a tough question. The Soulwax remix of "Midnight Dipper" by Warmduscher is a great remix. Soulwax in general, obviously. Also, the Soulwax remix of ["A Hero's Death" by] Fontaines D.C. is one of my favorites. My favorite part about that one is the steely synth line — it's a new addition, a new melody from the original song, but it's so catchy and really rad. Maybe that's what's so special about remixes is you can love a song and then somebody remixes it and it's a new interpretation and a new interaction for your brain with the song that you already love. 

[I also love] the Confidence Man remix of CHAI ["END"]. Deftones put out a really fun remix album a couple years ago of White Pony. I have so much nostalgia for that album, so it's lovely to have a new experience of it.

Wet Leg (Josh Mobaraki): This is an answer to a different question, but my first favorite remix was that Linkin Park and Jay-Z [EP], Collision Course. I think my mom was listening to loads and Linkin Park at the time. and stuff like that. I was like, Whoa.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs: For me, one of the kings of remixing is the producer Shep Pettibone. He's kind of the godfather of the original pop dance floor remix. That sometimes is about just making a slightly punchier 12-inch version of the track and sometimes it's about really turning it upside down. His remix of "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order is one of the best songs of all time, really, and his remix is better than the original. His remixes are about maximizing the pop song in a dance floor context. His Paula Abdul "Knocked Out" remix is a bit crazier and dubby and strange.

He's a big inspiration for me and one of the people I heard in my late-teens, early-20s that made me think I could get into four-four music, like house and disco, because I was very against that. I was all about breakbeats and hip-hop beats and jungle as a teenager. He was also a producer-producer and did a lot of Madonna's stuff. His remix of Jane Child's "Don't Wanna Fall in Love" is so good.

BADBADNOTGOOD: Some of our favorite remixes are the versions of songs that draw you further into it with fresh energy and feeling. A few of them: D’Angelo "Lady (feat. AZ) [Just Tha Beat Mix]", Björk "I Miss You (Dobie Rub Part One - Sunshine Mix)," Janet Jackson "If (Kaytranada Remix)," Sade "By Your Side (Neptunes Remix)," De La Soul "Stakes is High (J Dilla Remix)" and Nas "The World Is Yours (Q-Tip Remix)."

2024 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Full Nominees List

Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

Looking for more GRAMMYs news? The 2024 GRAMMY nominations are here!

He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

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On Music’s Biggest Night, stars stopped to talk with the Recording Academy ahead of the 2023 GRAMMYs telecast. Watch interviews with Lifetime Achievement Awards recipient Nile Rodgers, first time nominees Bonobo and The Marias, industry legends like LL Cool J and so many more.

Head to live.GRAMMY.com all year long to watch all the GRAMMY performances, acceptance speeches, the GRAMMY Live From The Red Carpet livestream special, the full Premiere Ceremony livestream, and even more exclusive, never-before-seen content from the 2023 GRAMMYs.

2023 GRAMMY Nominations: See The Complete Winners & Nominees List

Carly Pearce & Bill Anderson

Carly Pearce, GRAMMY-winner with Ashley McBryde for Best Country Duo/Group Performance of “Never Wanted To Be That Girl”.

Nile Rodgers

Nile Rodgers, recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award, GRAMMY-winner for Best R&B Song on Beyonce’s “Cuff It” and GRAMMY-nominated for Album Of The Year on Beyonce’s Renaissance. 

Maneskin

Maneskin, GRAMMY-nominees for Best New Artist.

Bonobo

Bonobo, GRAMMY-nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Recording for his song “Rosewood” , and Best Dance/Electronic Music Album for his album, Fragments.

The Marias

The Marias, GRAMMY-nominated for Album of the Year for Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti”.

Nelly

Nelly is a three-time GRAMMY-winner and 12-time nominee.

Aoife O'Donovan

Aoife O'Donovan, GRAMMY-nominated with Allison Russell for Best American Roots Performance for “Prodigal Daughter”.

Fridayy

Fridayy, GRAMMY-nominated for Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song , and Song Of The Year for “God Did”.

Jacob Collier

Jacob Collier, GRAMMY-nominated for Album of the Year for work on Coldplay’s ‘Music of The Spheres’.

LL Cool J

GRAMMY-winner LL Cool J. 

Machine Gun Kelly

Machine Gun Kelly, GRAMMY-nominated for Best Rock Album, Mainstream Sellout.

Tiara Thomas

Tiara Thomas, GRAMMY-nominated for Album of the Year for Mary J. Blige’s album, Good Morning Gorgeous.

Los Angeles-based producer, DJ and musician Bonobo is a beat master and sampling champ known for his chilled electronic soundscapes and globally inspired, jazzy rhythms. Listening to a Bonobo album is like going on a guided tour of  a lively market; it’s an expansive, vibrant sampling of sounds and flavors that remains entirely tasty and cohesive.

"I'm always trying to find something to be excited about," Bonobo tells GRAMMY.com. "If that's a new way of doing stuff; like working on samplers to working on Ableton, to now working with modular synths. There's always got to be an element of exploration, that intrigue is what keeps it exciting."

The Brighton-born artist dropped his seventh studio album, Fragments, at the beginning of 2022, its ocean of emotions born during the early days of the pandemic. Fragments is currently nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Music Album and its lead single "Rosewood" is up for Best Dance/Electronic Recording at the upcoming 2023 GRAMMYs.

Now with a total of seven GRAMMY nominations, Bonobo has reached another career pinnacle. Yet his roots remain ever-relevant and ripe for a revisit, with each release unfurling new movement and exploration.

After a few singles and EPs, Bonobo dropped his trip-hop-leaning debut full-length, 2000's Animal Magic, and signed to legendary U.K. dance label Ninja Tune the following year. He began to introduce collaborators on his third release, linking with German poet and vocalist Bajka on 2006's Days To Come. 2010's Black Sands further expanded Bonobo's sonic world through the introduction of live instrumentation in studio and onstage. 

Bonobo's global travels inspired 2013's The North Borders — which opens with the enchantingly  moody "First Fires" and features the standout "Heaven for the Sinner" with Erykah Badu — and and he brought a nomadic energy to the aptly named 2017 project Migration.

He has since settled in Los Angeles and, as with many touring artists, spent his longest period at home in 2020. The result was Fragments, which was recorded during lockdown with virtual collaborators Jordan Rakei, Jamila Woods, Joji and Kadhja Bonet. We’ll have to wait to discover what’s next in Bonobo’s sonic world, but the energetic non-Fragments singles he released in late 2022 may be a taste.

In celebration of his 2023 GRAMMY nominations and his many contributions to electronic music, Bonobo reflected on some of his favorite productions. Calling in from Lithuania at the tail end of his massive Fragmentstour, Bonobo broke down some of his most beloved tracks from his discography — including his all-time favorite production.

"Rosewood"

(Fragments, 2022)

"Rosewood" was the last one, it was kind of the missing piece of the record [Fragments]. It was from this iPhone recording that I had of me just messing around on the piano in my house, from ages ago….which is the main loop. And then I started adding kick drums and other elements on it. The basis of it had this almost Nina Simone "Sinnerman" kind of feel.

For "Rosewood," I was going for classic Detroit-y house. I was listening to Theo Parrish and Kerri Chandler and that percussive, loop-based kind of house music. That was the mood, at least.

"Otomo" with O'Flynn

(Fragments, 2022)

I was working with a sample that I'd found from archives of a Bulgarian choir that was recorded in the '20s. That was the main part of the song. I was messing around with that and harmonizing it and trying some chords. This was at the time when you couldn't get in the room with people and I was stuck on how to structure the song.

I like the way O’Flynn switches between very melodic stuff and big percussive stuff, so I was thinking that maybe he was the person to get this one to the finish line, which he did.

"Otomo" is named after Katsuhiro Otomo, who is the creator of [the manga and 1988 animated film] Akira. I liked the mix of the choral and percussion sounds from Akira and that was an influence for “Otomo.”

"Heartbreak" with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

(Heartbreak/6000 Ft., 2020)

The Class Action sample [1983's "Weekend"] was a Paradise Garage classic. "Heartbreak" is a homage to a few different eras of dance music, having that throwback to '80s disco, that '90s breakbeat and something more contemporary as well. It's a real patchwork of different dance floor eras.

I collabed with Orlando [Higginbottom a.k.a.], Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. He had the palette of the tune already and I came in and arranged it and added the vocal, which fit quite nicely.

There are a lot of classic drum breaks in there, little nods to the era of '90s rave and breakbeat and drum and bass. For the synths and other sounds, it's actually a lot of chopped up — micro-chopped — samples. A lot of it is sample-based.

"Brambro Koyo Ganda" with. Innov Gnawa

(Migration, 2017)

That one I started as a kind of loop. I was messing around on a Rhodes piano. The drums were a big part too. I added a sample of a Moroccan Gnawa recording from the '70s, I think, but I realized it would be more interesting to record [something new instead]. I knew of these Gnawa players that are based in Brooklyn [Innov Gnawa], so we went to a studio in Greenpoint [Brooklyn] and recorded.

That group is great and ended up coming out on tour with us for a bit. It was this big, impactful dance floor moment, and then having that extra element — Moroccan Gnawa music is ceremonial music, so it was a version of traditional songs but they changed the lyrical narrative to something a bit more secular.

I discovered Gnawa music from spending time in Morocco. I really like that style of North African music. Besides being in Morocco, it's something I listen to a lot anyway. I recorded a lot of music with Innov Gnawa, there are a few other tracks we did. There were also different, longer versions of the single. A good amount of that session was expanded and extended and is out there.

"Heaven For The Sinner" with Erykah Badu

(The North Borders, 2013)

I had that tune for a while, it was just an instrumental. I met Erykah through a project she was doing with Mark Ronson. "Heaven For The Sinner" was the last piece on North Borders. She was in Dallas and I was in New York, and she recorded little bits; she'd do about one line a day over a long course of time, so it was taking the idea she had for the tune and piecing it together. It was an assembly of various recordings.

[I didn't change the instrumental] too much because I'd already left a lot of space for her voice. Mostly when I'm working with vocalists, the track is fairly complete.

She joined us for a few tour dates. At the San Francisco show, we did a version of that song and of "Bag Lady" — it was a beautiful, magical moment.

"Eyesdown" with Andreya Triana

(Black Sands, 2010)

I was living in London at the time [and] I was very immersed in what was happening in London around 2008, 2009, which was sort of the post-dubstep scene with [the club] Plastic People and [one of its club nights] FWD>>.

That tune was just a beat, really. My friend came over and listened to some stuff I was working on. I played him the instrumental for "Eyesdown" and he was like, "Wait, what was that one?" I was surprised that was the one that he liked, it was something I could've thrown in the trash at any point. But he was like, "Yes, that’s the one!" I was all, "Oh s—, okay. I'll work on it."

The cherry on top is Andreya's vocal, which is actually just one line repeated a few times throughout the track. I produced her first album; we were spending a lot of time working on her record in my studio. Once we were working on her record, it was a case of me asking "Do you have any ideas for this song?" So we were doing vocal takes for Black Sands at the same time we were making her record. We had a year long of working together a lot.

"Between The Lines" with Bajka

(Days To Come, 2006)

I think that actually started out as a remix for someone else, and I was like, "Nah, you're not having that" and ended up keeping the beat. I was really happy with that one. I'd been working with Tom Chant who's a woodwind player. He did the intro, that really strange sound, which is made with a technique he has of playing the alto saxophone with the end on his leg; it has insane harmonics. We were recording together a lot at the time. He also recorded the saxophone parts on Black Sands.

It was that very simple, heavy beat and some of those weird saxophone harmonics and Bajka's vocal.

"Flutter"

(Dial M for Monkey, 2003)

Oh yeah! That was a sample from one of those big band records from the '60s, these sort of party records. The production on them is insane. It's the build, the tunka tunk tunka tunk, and it just looped up really well. I was like "This is fun" and that was kind of it, it was quite simple. It came together quite quickly, as I remember. It was a fun process making that one. I was in [his hometown] Brighton at the time. But honestly, I don't remember that much because it was such a long time ago.

Erykah Badu - "The Healer"

(New Amerykah Part One (4th World War), 2008)

Ooh, [my favorite production from another artist has] probably got to be Madlib's beats for Erykah Badu's "The Healer" from [2008's] New Ameryka. I think that's my favorite beat that's been made.

Sonically, it's crazy, like nothing I've ever heard. There's a sample from a Japanese prog rock band, and it's all these very quiet sounds against delicate sounds that are very prominent and there's all this incredible stuff going on. Madlib on that beat is one of the most incredible productions I've heard.

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