Review
Genre and Mood
Laidback’s Beautiful Day, as the yearbook names it, is not the band’s own mix but the remix by Banzai Republic and Trentemøller, in the 6:58 cut from the Ibiza compilation Kumharas Vol. 2. It belongs to electronic chill-out: relaxed, made for the hours around sunset, and for at least one Ibiza DJ, nostalgic.
Song Summary
Beautiful Day is a song by Laid Back, the Copenhagen duo of John Guldberg and Tim Stahl, and its Wikipedia discography dates the single to 2003. The Danish label Music for Dreams issued it with four mixes: the Royal Theatre mix, the Sunny Flugelhorn mix, the Frontera remix and this Banzai Republic vs. Trentemøller remix. The remix travelled furthest. It turns up on lounge and sunset compilations under several names and lengths, and the yearbook’s copy is track ten of Kumharas Vol. 2, released on Ultra Vista Records.
Musical Breakdown
Main Section
No review we found walks through this remix, so this page describes less than usual. Ibiza Spotlight heard beachy beats in it; the credits tell us that the words are Guldberg’s and Stahl’s and the rebuilt track is the two remixers’. Listen for how the song’s voice sits inside a production made by someone else.
Concepts in Focus
A remix is a new version made by reworking a recording’s parts, often by another producer. Here the song is Laid Back’s and the version is Banzai Republic’s and Trentemøller’s, and the name of the mix changes from release to release: remix, mix, vocal mix, and on this compilation no name at all. Even the length varies, 6:58 here against 7:37 elsewhere, which is why this page is about one exact recording.
The remix lived through the dj mix and the DJ-compiled album. Kumharas Vol. 2 was compiled by a DJ, and in 2014 the remix sat inside a Music for Dreams compilation that opens with a two-hour continuous mix by Trinxa, who said it is the song that always takes him back to Ibiza.
Artistic Context
Laid Back formed in Copenhagen in 1979; their Sunshine Reggae reached number one in Italy, West Germany and nineteen other countries, and White Horse became their breakthrough in America. Anders Trentemøller, also based in Copenhagen, released electronic 12-inch EPs and remixes before his 2006 debut album The Last Resort, and his remix list includes another Laid Back song, People, in 2005. For his darker side, hear David Lynch, Karen O – Pinky’s Dream (Trentemøller Remix Instrumental).
Impact and Reception
The remix’s reception is written in compilations rather than charts: a decade after the single, it was still being chosen to soundtrack Ibiza sunsets. Put it on when the light starts to go.
