"The Eternal Remixes" - U2

EP

Track Listing:

Background Information

The EP features four remixes by artists who enjoy popularity in the Indian music scene, commissioned by the A&R Department at JioSaavn. These include mixes by Karsh Kale, Lost Stories, OX7GEN, and Amaal Mallik. Original plans called for these mixes to be released with “Ahimsa,” the single U2 recorded with A.R. Rahman, but eventually they were released as a four track stand alone EP. The EP was released digitally worldwide and there are no physical releases of this EP planned.

Karsh Kale takes on “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and recreates the song weaving together female vocals, including a reference to January 30, the date Mahatma Gandhi died. He also includes lyrics from “Vaishnava Jana To,” an Indian song used by Gandhi in his morning prayers each day. The song was written in the 15th century by Narsinh Mehta, and new recording by various artists has been used to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Ghandi. Kale was born to Indian immigrants in the UK, and grew up and lives in the USA, known for his solo work as well as his compositions for many Bollywood films.

The second track is a remix of U2’s “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” by Indian duo Lost Stories, made up of Rishab Joshi and Prayag Mehta. They said of the remix, “to have been presented with this opportunity by JioSaavn to officially remix any U2 track is a feat like no other and a dream come true. But we stuck by our signature Lost Stories style and lent the track an Indian sound that complimented the exemplary U2 sound.” Lost Stories formed in 2008 and were only the second Indian act to feature in DJ Mag’s Top 100 list.

OX7GEN remixes the third song on the EP, a remix of “You’re The Best Thing About Me” and about the song he says it “had some great sections to work with, so I tried to retain the original energy of the track, but steer it in a direction that’s closer to the OX7GEN sound. Massive shout out to JioSaavn and all the people behind it for trusting me with this. It’s been nothing but a dream come true for the 14-year-old me who used to stay up all night remixing U2’s discography.” OX7GEN is the drum and bass, ambient music project of Mumbai based producer Aditya Ashok.

The final song is reinvented by Amaal Mallik, and is “Beautiful Day.” Mallik is an Indian music director and singer in the Hindi film industry, contributing songs to dozens of films. The Hindi lyrics are sung by Yash Narvekar, and written by Kunaal Vermaa.

JioSaavn claims to be the largest music streaming service in India, and counts Guy Oseary as one of its investors since 2016. U2 turned to them in the planning stages of their show in Mumbai, to help them reach an Indian audience, and to help promote the Indian show date. In a conversation with JioSaavn Bono said, “we’re plugged in because you’re plugged in. You are a way for us to speak with our audience, you are our way to meet a new audience. We’re very, very grateful.”

The four remixes were commissioned by JioSaavn’s A&R team via the label they run, Artist Originals (AO), reaching out to the producers involved, even presenting the concept behind some of the mixes to the musicians involved. They were also involved in the development of the song “Ahimsa” with A.R. Rahman. Asked why these artists were chosen to remake U2 songs, director of A&R, Hiba Irshad answered “because they have all, in some way, redefined South Asian music across genres. We entrusted them to reimagine these iconic songs in their own unique ways. These records are beautiful and will bring U2 to an even larger audience in India and globally.”

Although put together by JioSaavn, the EP was released worldwide at all of the usual streaming services and digital store fronts on December 6, 2019. This included releases in compressed formats such as MP3, CD-quality digital releases, and hi-def audio at better than CD-quality. The files are accompanied by an image in blue and purple with the name of the band and the name of the EP. For promotion each song had an image done as well, featuring either the single or album cover and a similar design over top.

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