By Kavit Sumud | February 27th, 2013
Sometimes songs take you on a journey. Recently, when I covered Tourist’s “I Have No Fear,” I was plunged from the precipices of space through the atmosphere on the backpack of Felix Baumgartner. M.A.U.’s remix of Death in the Afternoon’s “Tricks,” however, takes me from the moment a dying heart beats freely once again — and let me tell you, it’s just as epic in scale.
M.A.U. somehow takes a simple, electronic remix and turn it into corporeal experience. The vocal intonations mimic your breathing; the synths beat at the pace of your heart. Throughout much of the track, those breaths and heartbeats slowly move from a turgid feeling of despair until a moment at 3:50 when the heartbeat drops out of the track and the voice is joined by swelling strings that double down on your breathing.
The breaths try to calm the mind from an impending panic, but lose the battle — and just before you pass out from the hyperventilation at 4:23, the synths/heartbeats kick back in the most glorious of fashions. Those synths are your fight or flight syndrome, and suddenly your charging off. Fight for your life or flee the fuck from it?
The genius of M.A.U.’s production is that unlike most producers, they don’t use that lift off to signal a happy denouement; they leave it ambiguous, opening the song for so many personal interpretations. But whether you’re fighting or fleeing, it’s going to be an extreme journey.
Do yourself a favor and check out more on their SoundCloud.