ometimes it just takes one song. One x-minute burst of infectious energy or subdued ambience; of indomitable hooks or catastrophic elegance. Its strength can define days or weeks, or mere minutes. Regardless, it’s damn enjoyable.


Such is the case with “(This Is) The Dream of Evan And Chan”, the 2001 collaboration between Jimmy Tamborello (for all practical purposes, Dntel) and Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard. For better or worse, it defined Dntel’s exceptional Life Is Full of Possibilities album, and perhaps rightfully so. Even one year later, it cuffs with a stunning melody, delicate timbre and evanescent allure of nostalgia. In both concept and execution, it’s a homerun all the way, but idiosyncratically so, which is why a remix EP is both an appealing proposition and an obvious gamble. Maybe shortsightedness is to blame, but, in the end, the questionable quality of the final product is decidedly more of an inevitability than a botched opportunity.After a run-through of the album version, Safety Scissors has his way with the song. His remix is one of the better seen here, as he subverts the drifting, breezy underpinnings of Tamborello’s track with a more constricted, glitchier one. Accordingly, he removes Gibbard’s waifish vocal, replacing it with that of Erlend Øye (Kings of Convenience), whose morose styling melds well with the terse backing provided. In the end, however, the remix falls into the inescapable Catch-22 of the project: it may as well be an entirely different song, albeit a quite decent one.


Barbara Morgen comes next, turning the song into a striking duet that, unfortunately, gets mangled underneath an unsuitable and awkward mix. A wayward organ gently pounds its way through a distorted array of rings and skitters that altogether belie the delicacy of the vocals. It’s by far the most frustrating track on the EP, not because it inappropriately mangles the song, but because it evades its potential.


For the first (and only) time, Superpitcher completely bypasses the song’s poppy undertones and recasts it as the wafting epic that it always hinted at being. Over the course of seven minutes, he keeps a throbbing beat, and layers swelling keyboards, jingle bells and the obligatory house-mix chiks overtop Gibbard’s original vocal. Although it’s nothing completely revelatory, it’s still a fulfilling stab at a great idea.


Lali Puna, the highest profile act to partake, finishes up the remix side of things on an all but deflating note. Although Tamborello is an undeniably talented electro-wizard, it’s basically safe to say that Gibbard made the song the mixtape juggernaut that it is. He played perfectly into Tamborello’s seamless glitchery, and tendered a bravura performance. So, justifiably, an instrumental remix of the song is shrug-inducing at best. The duo keeps the beat that kicks in right after the original version’s opening static, as well as a windswept keyboard tone that floats low in the mix, adding a few loops and blurts. It’s hardly disappointing, but hardly worth listening to either.


The latest Dntel track, “Your Hill” is tacked onto the set, and steadfastly assures listeners that Tamborello’s project is hardly a one album commodity; the song easily rivals almost any of the tracks on Possibilities. Its quiet earnestness calls to mind a bolder Múm and works as a fine companion piece to “Evan and Chan” in both tone, subject matter, and quality.Nothing ventured, nothing gained I suppose. This EP is a time-worthy listen for fans of the song (and to a lesser degree, the genre) and elicits no glowing raves or damning obscenities, while never feeling like a placating copout, which is fine; that one song will still be there.