Hear Lush Yoko Ono Remix by Portugal. The Man
Yoko Ono‘s upcoming record, Yes, I’m a Witch Too — on which a star-studded cast of collaborators refigure the avant-garde artist’s works — features an ornately textured remix of her 2001 song “Soul Got Out of the Box” by Portugal. The Man.
Where the original on her Blueprint for a Sunrise album found the artist singing and moaning along to pounding, bluesy piano, the new version begins with acoustic guitar and noticeably samples her vocal line as sparse drums and a chorus of female voices focus on Ono’s lyric about “doomsday.”
“I grew up in rural Alaska — the thought that I collaborated and sing on the same track as Yoko blows me away,” Portugal. The Man‘s John Baldwin Gourley tells Rolling Stone. “She is a legend and I am lucky to have had this opportunity”
Ono, when asked for comment, chose to offer up a quote, based on another one of the song’s lyrics: “I am rolling forever on an unpaved road.”
The record — which will come out on February 19th — follows up Ono’s 2007 remix LP, Yes, I’m a Witch, based on a similar theme. Some of the artists who took on her songs for Yes, I’m a Witch Too include Death Cab for Cutie, Sparks, Cibo Matto, Peter Bjorn and John, and her son, Sean Lennon. Tune-Yards’ version of “Warrior Woman,” as it appears on the record, came out in July. The album, featuring cover art by Scott Rudd containing an image by Karl Lagerfeld, will be available as a double-vinyl set, a deluxe CD and digitally.