Jai Wolf reminds the world he’s a synth-pop guru on soaring remix of keshi’s ‘Blue’

January 12, 2021

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It’s been a moment or two since we heard a remix from Jai Wolf — four years in fact. While New York’s Sajeeb Saha has recently rereleased the time-tested hit, 2016’s “Indian Summer,” to mark its five year anniversary, the future pop production guru and former ODESZA protégé has kept fans drowning in anticipation for what was on his creative horizon.

Since his widely-toured 2019 sophomore LP, The Cure to Loneliness, which shifted the course of his career from a promising newcomer into an artistic leader driving the synth-pop trend, fans still remain uncertain as to where Jai Wolf will go next. His latest remixed release of keshi’s “Blue” makes that future trajectory a little less uncertain as Saha brings fans back into the fold of Jai Wolf’s light-hearted brand of electronic music.

Jai Wolf has a sound that appeals to many, and might best be presented as the kind of EDM that is best listened to in a convertible, with the top down, hair flying in the tropical air. It has a sort of bounce, a washing wave of nostalgia, and the kind of groovy synth work that alleviates the stress and drama of life. His sound reminds listeners about beauty, simplicity, love, and friendship in all the right ways. Jai Wolf achieves these stark storytelling motifs through both the vocals he uses and through the soaring reach of his sound production. Both elements are well presented in his keshi remix.

The original comes from a Texas-based artist named Keshi who sought to touch on the loss of people we once cared about in our lives, and how that loss has the ability to speak to the power of those relationships and the strength of their memory. Jai Wolf raises the pitch on the vocals to a point at which they become mysteriously obscured and high enough to offset the deeper synths which ride underneath the lyrics. The highly-synthesized vocals soar to a point where they dominate all attention, to a point before Jai Wolf leaves only a simple acoustic guitar strum to drive the track home.

In character with his discography to date, the remix’s high builds and deep depths complement the lyrics perfectly, creating a deep emotional connection between music and memory.