My Dry Wet Mess tackles ‘PieFace’ by Flying Lotus in new remix

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Raised in Rome and relocated to Barcelona, the 27-year old born Giovanni Civitenga was tabbed by local luminary Daedelus to be the second artist to record for the producer’s incipient Magical Properties imprint. But even if the imprimatur of the erstwhile Alfred Darlington wasn’t enough to convince skeptics, Citivenga’s musical lineage is as strong as anyone this side of Flying Lotus (the nephew of Alice Coltrane).

The beatmaker who casts spells under the name My Dry Wet Mess is the progeny of the bass player in the orchestra of famed Italian composer Ennio Morricone, the man who wrote the canonized scores for the Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood collaborations in the 1960s. But rather than create orchestral spaghetti Western beats, Civitenga acquired an Atari and an MPC and started sampling -- his ear more attuned to hip-hop and bass music.

After changing his name from the ungainly ‘Bluermutt’ and moving to Catalonia, he eschewed his earlier embrace of pop-techno to make the sort of harder sci-fi beats that have been emanating from London’s post-dubstep world and L.A.’s Low End Theory.

Commencing studies in interactive design, Civitenga began to construct sound-reactive video performance programs, which led to an audiovisual collaboration with Daedelus last year. Consider him a Barcelona version of Dr. Strangeloop, able to seamlessly blend the worlds of art and sound. In honor of a performance at tonight’s Low End Theory, Civi’s project My Dry Wet Mess offers this premiere: His remix of ‘PieFace’ from Flying Lotus’ ‘Pattern + Grid World’ EP.

On the original version, Lotus ostensibly channeled the tension preceding a banana cream pie smacking a clown’s face (at a circus selling cannabis instead of cotton candy). On this version, My Dry Wet Mess does what every good remix should: select a different flavor altogether. So, consider this an empanada de manzana, light, airy and easily consumed.

Download: (Pop & Hiss Premiere)

MP3: Flying Lotus -- ‘PieFace (My Dry Wet Mess Remix)’

-- Jeff Weiss