Oddities

Here are some of my reinterpretations of other people's songs.

Covers

<b>The way I work</b>

I like to do remixes. It's a great way to practise using my musical instruments and, furthermore, it pays the bills between albums/gigs.

A musician will send me the constituent parts of one of their songs. Usually I will use just the vocal acapella and construct the underlying audio entirely from scratch. Very rarely do I use any other elements of the original recording (with the exception of "Fledermaus Can't Get It" and "Alone, Together", both "cut-up"-type rejigs where the parts were unavailable). If the original track is an instrumental, my remix often ends up being more of a cover version, as I will entirely reprogram/rerecord everything myself (e.g. "Enough About Human Rights").

I prefer to work with songs I dislike, as it's more of a challenge to turn them into something special. One particular track was so phenomenally godawful that I actually sampled the noise of me snapping the original CDr, and used it in my version.

Sometimes record-label staff or band managers don't like my first pass at a remix, so I may have to dumb things down somewhat. That usually does the trick. Alas that is the cautious, focus-grouped world we live in these days. I find that the smaller the label/band, the more ambitious I can get with a remix without people getting all confused when they hear it. What did these people expect? Have they not heard my albums? Stop wasting my time and give Erol Alkan a call or something.

The remix I am most proud of is the one of "Commando" by The Monsoon Bassoon (look them up). Because I'm good friends with the (sadly now defunct) band, I got away with submitting a fairly delirious reworking of their magnificent song. I took several months to record this version and have never thrown so much of my heart, soul and kitchen sink into any other remix. The resultant 7" contains more musical and structural ideas than a whole afternoon of 6Music. In an ideal world, Rihanna's management would hear this rhapsodic prog workout, book me to do a similarly far-out amendment of said pop chanteuse's ditties, and the resulting synapse-mangler would be heard blaring out of schoolkids' Nokias on the 38 bus.

Alas, however, the days of Frank Zappa being able to assemble a full orchestra to play his compositions on Saturday Night Live are long gone, and in these times of Magic FM's playlisting of oldies (10cc's "I'm Not In Love" six times a day, with nairy a play of the band's vastly superior "Clockwork Creep"), billion-selling acoustic balladeers on Later, and reality shows squeezing out the last remaining music video programmes on MTV, it really is about very straightforward, predictably structured, risk-free songs.

That said, if you like what you hear above, get in touch.

Remixes

Matt Didemus from Junior Boys started work on this glorious reworking of Which Song before his hard drive exploded. Still dreaming about what the finished version might sound like!

Max Tundra: Which Song (unreleased Junior Boys demo)

The 3 Year Olds: March Of The Ding Dings (Max Tundra Remix)

Kenny Everett was a fantastic comedian and all-round televisual institution. He used to host a feature on Capital Radio in London called The Phantom Phone Booth, during which he would ring a random telephone kiosk. When I was 13, I answered the call.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Everett

Kenny Everett: The Phantom Phone Booth

I remixed the previously tranquil theme music to DJ Douggpound's "Pound House" sitcom and it appeared at the start of Episode 6. Here's the full-length version.

Pound House Theme (Max Tundra Remix)

Apple vs. 7G

Soft Landing (Max Tundra Remix)

Lights

Lights (A. G. Cook Remix)

Para One: Lean On Me (Max Tundra Remix)

MBGATE

MBGATE (Kero Kero Bonito Remix)

Remixtape

Fuerte (Max Tundra's Amiga Remix)

WHiiCH SONG (BABii Rework)

The Entertainment (Max Tundra Piano Version)

Lysine (Julia Holter Remix)

Orphaned (Colin Self Self-Beheaded Rework)

Neosporin

Neosporin (Max Tundra Remix)

Lights 2023

This Woman's Work

Max Tundra: Enough About Human Rights! (Moondog cover)

Max Tundra: The Rockford Phials

Max Tundra: The Rockford Files

Azealia Banks: Chasing Time (Max Tundra Remix)

Parallax Error Beheads You

Will Get Fooled Again

Mastered by Guy at The Exchange

Lysine

Orphaned

Until We Die

RIP, o purple one. Here's an old cover I did.

1 Wanna Be Your Lover

A cover of this astonishing Cardiacs song, recorded especially for the "Leader Of The Starry Skies" compilation, in aid of Tim Smith. 

Now please read about and buy said compilation:

http://thegenepool.co.uk/items/597.htm

Max Tundra feat. Sarah Measures: Will Bleed Amen (Cardiacs cover)

Missy Elliott: The Rain (Max Tundra Remix)

The Strokes: Alone, Together (Max Tundra Remix)

Pet Shop Boys: I'm With Stupid (Max Tundra Remix)

Freddie Mercury: I Was Born To Love You (Max Tundra Remix)

Lily Allen: LDN (Max Tundra Remix)

Jensen Sportag: Cocktease (Max Tundra Remix)

Franz Ferdinand: Ulysses (Max Tundra Remix)

Noah And The Whale: Love Of An Orchestra (Max Tundra Remix)

Max Tundra: Playboy (Hot Chip cover)

Max Tundra: Digital Love (Daft Punk cover)

Simon Bookish: Terry Riley Disco (Max Tundra Remix)

One of the first pieces of music I ever did!

Max Tundra: The Bill

Randy Bride: Leave Them About Us

Astonishing remix of "Which Song", courtesy of <a href="http://myspace.com/silverlink" target="_blank">Silverlink</a>.

Which Song

Which Song (Silverlink Remix)

Charli XCX: I Finally Understand (Max Tundra Remix)

Max Tundra

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks