Loving this remix of Bowie’s recent song “Love is Lost.”  After a few repeats, I went back to Reich’s Clapping Music, to which the remix pays homage.  There’s clapping in the mix, even when it breaks into a four on the floor disco beat.  I saw “Clapping Music” performed live by the percussion section of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra—mesmerizing, loopy, and I’m told pretty tough to pull off. The remix also feels spot on because of Bowie’s previous association with Reich’s music. Apparently Bowie was at the 1976 European premiere of Music for 18 Musicians at the Metamusik Festival in Berlin. Here’s  recent recording of the whole piece (featuring the amazing Eight Blackbird). A few months later, in early 1977, later Bowie released his brilliant Low, the first of his “Berlin Trilogy” albums. The record features the instrumental track Wailing Wall, which Reich believes was influenced by his work.  Bowie’s new record looks back with nostalgia to those Berlin years, so good on James Murphy for this remix.  A round of applause for this, and especially for the sly quote from “Ashes to Ashes.”