All Shook Up: Breakbot Adds Special Flavoring to Sam i's "Shake ft. Alex Greenwald"

Funk is and has been one of my favorite genres since high school, when much of my musical world was dominated by artists of the 60s and 70s. The staccato guitars and fluid bass movements were streamlined into a coolness in the 80s that accented their lush texturing with a medley of synthesizers. That style is itself streamlined into a simultaneously bouncy and laid-back cool in Breakbot’s remix of Sam i and Alex Greenwald’s “Shake.”

Beachy guitar and marimba fake out the intro of the track before delving into the skittering bounce of bass and guitar that Breakbot has utilized so well in the course of his career. The wavering synthesizers add a layer of ominous apparel to the song, as welcome in a cut by Cameo or even an oddity like Flash and the Pan’s “Midnight Man.” This dualism inherent in the style is especially prescient in Greenwald’s vocals, just as rounded and achy as they were in the heyday of his pop punk adjacent works with Phantom Planet. The production work from Breakbot and Sam i’s structuring allows that roundness to bounce around the track in an altogether new form that is just a blast to take in, and, frankly, is only appropriate, given the title of the song.

Sam i’s “Shake ft. Alex Greenwald” (Breakbot Remix) is out now and streaming everywhere!