Claptone keeps this year’s unstoppable flow of House music bangers going with a new set of remixes by Monkey Safari, James Hype, Murmur Tooth & Lars Moston of his 2021 hit Beautiful ft lau.ra. Individually, all the 3 tracks bring a different flavor and mood to the lush and graceful original.
And while the new versions of Claptone – Beautiful ft lau.ra share a common thread that is not solely connected to the fact that they are remixes, ignoring their distinctive expressive qualities and focusing solely on these commonalities is a mistake.
Take the new James Hype remix as an example. Perhaps, the most dramatic shift from the tone of the original track, this aggressive take flips Beautiful on its head, bringing in some high energy Tech House vibes. The trippy delays on the vocals and hazy string pads only strengthen this impression. Considering that this kind of sound is one of James Hype’s strong sides, this isn’t a big surprise.
On the other hand, the stunning progressive, harmony-focused take of the new Murmur Tooth & Lars Moston remix cannot but surprise, even daze the fans of Claptone’s original track. Although roughly it’s the same length as the main mix of Claptone – Beautiful ft lau.ra, the density of the Leah and Lars version makes it feel like 2 tracks stacked as one.
The funkier-sounding new Monkey Safari remix gives a taste of the approaching summer. By rejecting the sentimentalities of the original, the duo creates a solid foundation for Claptone – Beautiful ft lau.ra to reemerge as an Open-Air festival banger. The vocals are chopped and resampled to create new melodies, the bass and the rhythms are reshaped too, reminding of the “walking” groove of genres like Ska and Caribbean Mento.
Overall, with 3 amazing official remixes, Beautiful can now be thought of as a multidimensional track that has infinite potential of being reimagined and infused with new sounds. Keeping in mind that Claptone has many tour dates approaching, these series of remixes from the artists’ Closer album will only build up the hype towards it.
