A little subtlety can make a huge difference. ‘Litmus Test’ is extremely subtle: almost acapella for the first half, spacious fractal guitars and tribal beats enter the mix beneath the harmonised voices. It’s delicately done, a curious (and curiously successful) amalgamation of post punk and world music, and it’s the fine balance and subtlety that makes it work.
The Seb Rochford mix takes the subtlety further – in fact, it’s so subtle it’s barely there at first before overdriven blasts of speaker shaking bass and a heavily reverbed vocal courtesy of guest Jehst takes things in a completely different direction. Hejira x Floating Points version of ‘Litmus Test’ drifts smoke-like with avant-jazz shades blurred into the eclectic mix, while the radio edit shaves 30 seconds of the original version and doesn’t serve much purpose. Still, Hejira are making music that’s quietly deep and refreshing in its uniqueness.
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