Mia Doi Todd follows up her acclaimed album Music Life (City Zen/Rings, 2021) with a set of stellar remixes, entitled Ten Views of Music Life. Described by Dusted Magazine as “one of those artists that seem to function not just as creators in their own right, but as connecting links between other musicians,” Mia did not need to look far to find world-class artists to remix her songs. The diversity of the resulting collection is also its strength. This excellent work was released on vinyl by ORG Music on Sept. 1.
.Despite a wide range of stylistic methodologies employed, the project feels cohesive and creates the impression of a magical world uniting around the purity of expression in Mia’s voice. Her vocals and other elements from the original Music Life tracks find themselves enveloped in entirely new landscapes, from Dntel‘s quirky electro-pop to Julia Holter and Tashi Wada‘s pensive and heartfelt orchestration, to the inimitable, free-form disco-boogie touch of Georgia Anne Muldrow. There’s an Afrobeat contribution from LA’s Jungle Fire and a cinematic kaleidoscope from Carlos Niño & Friends, featuring Jamael Dean (here as Jira><), and Sharada Shashidhar. Brazilian producer Kassin gives a fresh twist to Mia’s version of Gregory Isaacs’ classic “If I Don’t Have You.” Pianist Vardan Ovsepian‘s brooding yet hopeful arrangement of “Take Me to the Mountain” ventures into the hills and valleys of sound, cradling Mia’s rich voice in subtle reharmonizations.
The cover artwork by Kozyndan portrays Mia as Benzaiten, goddess of music in the Japanese pantheon, with a wink to the Greek vase painting style of the cover of ‘Music Life’ – a visual remix, itself, of Mia’s original artwork.
Here is the link to the Mia Doi Todd album stream:
https://miadoitodd.bandcamp.com/album/ten-views-of-music-life
