1000 gecs and The Tree of Clues

1000 gecs and The Tree of Clues

1000 gecs, the 2019 album by experimental duo 100 gecs, was a fascinating distillation of some of music's most disparate styles—from dubstep and PC music to electro-pop and punk. Now the pair—Laura Les and Dylan Brady—are pushing their sound even further towards the outer edges of the electronic, pop and hardcore spaces. With 1000 gecs and The Tree of Clues, the songs are reimagined by and with a slew of collaborators across the genre spectrum alongside a handful of new tracks. “We didn't really initially plan to do the remix album,” Brady tells Apple Music. “It kind of started from when we released the stems to our album, and people started making a bunch of remixes and stuff.” Some of the new takes are masterminded by the credited producers themselves with minimal input, while others reflect their own reworkings with a handful of vocal features. In creating this album, 100 gecs open up a space to explore the infinite possibilities and directions a song can take. Or, alternatively, in Les' words, “it's for a laugh and a half”. Here Brady and Les talk about the reworked tracks on the collection. money machine (A.G. Cook Remix) Dylan: “A.G. has been a new friend of mine. I was a huge fan of him for such a long time, and we connected and worked on a few things—worked on some Charli [XCX] stuff. And when we started thinking about that we were going to do this, we reached out to him for the remix.” Laura: “He's a legend of the 2010s, so we definitely wanted to get him.” ringtone (Remix) [feat. Charli XCX, Rico Nasty, Kero Kero Bonito] Dylan: “Rico was a fan of the original track, apparently. Then we got the files back, and she went absolutely crazy. And I was working on some stuff with Charli, so we had been friends a bit, and we were obviously huge fans. We thought it would be sick to get her on the chorus and do a cool verse. We hadn't worked with Kero Kero Bonito, but we're both big fans of her as well. It was sick to get them to come together like that.” 745 sticky (Injury Reserve Remix) Dylan: “That was a sick track—the beat on that one. It's way more different from the original track than most of the other ones. We did a bit of production with them on the remix with their producer Parker [Corey]. We both kind of worked on the beat together, and the vocals went crazy, of course.” Laura: “They all killed it on that—fucking amazing energy. It would be incomplete without them.” gec 2 Ü (Danny L Harle Harlecore Remix) Laura: “Harlecore. It's a new subgenre that's popping up here and there by Danny L. It's an offshoot of hardcore. Euphoria abounds.” hand crushed by a mallet (Remix) [feat. Fall Out Boy, Craig Owens, Nicole Dollanganger] Laura: “We met Pete Wentz as Fall Out Boy fans. He asked us if we'd be interested in doing work with some of his artists on his label, and we were like, 'Yes.' And three days later we just got a text that was this folder of freaking Patrick Stump vocals, and we were like, 'All right, that's it.' We got Craig on it—Craig's a huge inspiration for both of us. And Nicole, you know, she killed it. It all just came together in sort of a sloppy mess fashion.” Dylan: “There's a very crucial sound in the beginning that came together in the last moments of the song. It's a vibraslap. That's kind of the glue to the whole song.” 800db cloud (Ricco Harver Remix) Laura: “That one actually came about from a remix on SoundCloud. There's two tracks that came about like that. We were just like, 'Amazing, that is very convenient that you're down, because we love it.' Big banger energy from that one.” stupid horse (Remix) [feat. GFOTY & Count Baldor] Dylan: “We've been big fans of GFOTY, similar tale as the others. We've been fans of her for a super long while—big inspiration as well. We reached out to her, and then she brought on Count Baldor to help remix it with her—also an incredible force of nature.” ringtone (umru Remix) Laura: “It's crazy to see how much music there is. So many artists and musicians out there, and umru is one of them. And graciously, he accepted and blessed us.” xXXi_wud_nvrstøp_ÜXXx (Remix) [feat. Tommy Cash & Hannah Diamond] Laura: “That one was funny, because Tommy Cash—we actually asked him to do a different song, and he just, I think, didn't care about the other songs, so he just remixed this one, which we're glad that he did because it turned into an incredibly sick banger. Hannah Diamond with a beautiful voice as always. Incredible vocal performance on that one from all parties for the benefit of your parties.” 745 sticky (Black Dresses Remix) Laura: “Yeah, they're incredible, defunct now—recently defunct project. But both numbers in there are great people, great musicians, big fans of them.” gecgecgec (Remix) [feat. Lil West and Tony Velour] Dylan: “We did the production on that one. Me and Laura both have produced for Lil West in the past, and I was working with Tony. We thought they would kill a reimagining of that, and Laura went crazy on the end with the new hook as well.” xXXi_wud_nvrstøp_ÜXXx (99jakes Remix) Laura: “The famous 909 worldwide, hardcore will never die, 99jakes. Single-handedly defending hardcore in the 2020s. Big, meaty 909 kick in the butt is the description for that one.” gec 2 Ü (Remix) [feat. Dorian Electra] Dylan: “We started that I think right before—we were both going on tour at the same time. They actually recorded all of the vocals for that on their laptop mic because they didn't have any access and wanted to get it in as soon as possible. Little did they know it would not come out for super long, but they went absolutely crazy on that.” hand crushed by a mallet (No Thank You Remix) Dylan: “I think that came out before the stems, actually, because it's not actually a remix—they just covered it. That version has just always been so powerful to me.” Laura: “I was working at my old job right after the album came out, and that remix was out, and I was listening to it while I was counting inventory in the basement. I was just throwing things around like, 'This is insane, this is so good.' So when we were going to do a remix album, that was a pretty easy choice for one that we had to do. We were both pretty floored by that one.”

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