If you've listened to the Dirty Projectors' gorgeously-precise pop before, you might be a little apprehensive that their bewitching vocalist Amber Coffman is singing on the new Major Lazer track, 'Get Free'.
After all, the 'group' (now a Diplo solo project following the departure of producer Switch) are best known for the thumping beat and whirring synths of 'Pon de Floor', and the daggering (ie: thrusting your crotch as a dance move) that accompanied it.
Thankfully, 'Get Free' is more about the reggae side of Major Lazer's twisted take on Jamaican music culture. It's deep, steady and chilled out, a perfect steady rhythm for Amber's vocals to dart around. And while it takes influence from rich history of reggae, it's not indebted to it. It has the same off-beat pulse of a thousand Trojan Records singles, but covers it with thoroughly modern ambient synth texture. Add to that the vocals from Amber, unique in this time or any other, and you get a disparate selection of influences coming together into something that seems oddly obvious.
From a renowned party group like Major Lazer, the song's mood is strangely resigned and wistful. The narrator just wants to be free of earthly worries but also acknowledges that "We can never be free". The sparse instrumentation and muted tones of the songs harmonies suggest a quiet defeat. A bit depressing, but life can't all be fun and daggering.
Aussie heroes WHAT SO NOT (of which future-beat star Flume is one half) delivered the amazing first remix of this track over the weekend and we've got word that Diplo is a massive fan of what they did with it, check it out below.
Words by Matt Nielson
