100 gecs’ 1000 Gecs was one of my favourite albums of 2019. It’s hyperactive internet culture melting pot sound makes for an initially confrontational but incredibly catchy and movement-inducing listen. Of all the tracks, “Ringtone” is probably the most tame of the bunch with its cute “doot, doOt…..doot, d00t” melody and sticky repetitious chorus. When rumbles of a remix featuring Charli XCX started swirling in early 2020, I was overcome with anticipated excitement.
Yesterday, the song was officially released and features an all star cast of Charli, Kero Kero Bonito, and Rico Nasty. You really can’t make more of a Honey on the Knife-core dream team than that.
That already incredibly catchy hook is punctuated by a masterfully autotuned delivery by Charli, who also serves up a champagne soaked verse from her limousine before Sarah Bonito comes through with a matter of fact talk/sung observation of the possibilities of ringtone customization. As the guitar-led bridge builds, Rico Nasty launches into some sparkling lovesick sing-rapping featuring an incredibly hard Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer bar.
Although this track is even more dopamine-inducing than the original version, the underlying sinister themes are explored further. The closing line of Sarah’s first verse bringing a distorted harmonizing voice to enhance the anxiety of receiving a unwanted call from an unwanted individual. Even after ridding herself of the phone, the ringtone remains. Finally the song ends with a tense whispered chorus set to a sparse clanking beat, where it feels like Charli uses the hushed tone to avoid detection from her caller.
All in all, this star-studded remix has me very amped up to hear the rest of the remix album set to come out later this year. Gec out the song below.