Zaba was easily one of my favorite albums from last year. I fell in love with Glass Animals after listening through the LP front to back, again and again, and it’s with that peculiar but extremely common sense of fanboy ownership that I’ve watched them now step into the limelight like some kind of proud mother. It happens when you really identify with a piece of music, with an artist, with an aesthetic. And the same phenomenon occurred when I came across Imagined Herbal Flows last year, so when this blend of the two surfaced, I was trapped. IHF had a limited amount of material to work with, extracting only the vocals that were unburdened by the rest of the mix from the original. But there’s something beautiful that happens when your tools are limited, when you are forced to draw with only certain colors. Boundaries spawn innovation, and Dave Bayley’s voice sits atop IMF’s accompaniment as comfortably as if it was the master recording. While finding them can be challenging, this is an example of a remix done well: original, creative, but derivative in the best way.

Check out Imagined Herbal Flows here, and Glass Animals here.