But we aren't here to talk about Benny Benassi's original production or Kazaky's dance moves we are here to talk about the absolute smorgasbord of remixes for this banger of a track. So let's get started. Most of the names Madonna has tagged in order to remix her track are pretty well known. Avicii, Dave Aude, and Offer Nissim are all widely recognized for their efforts, but only slightly less known are Dada Life and Kim Fai. Lucky Date and Justin Cognito are not quite as well known, but after this remix single, it's anyone's game who comes out on top.
Avicii
Avicii is clearly the first mix of the bunch to achieve notoriety, having been played at Ultra Music Festival. Tim Berg (a.k.a. Avicii) slathers his signature sound all over the track, mixing in entrancing melodies with sickeningly heavy dropped beats, as he does. The thing about Avicii's mix is that it's clearly trying very hard to establish itself as a separate track from the original. Avicii created a whole new song for Madonna's vocals, and it works quite well at being both uplifting and getting you to shake your tailfeather, but I have to admit that after repeated listens to the original, it's missing some of Benassi's inflection.
Dave Aude
Aude's mix, on the other hand, takes a heavier, rock-based approach. The mix is also full of tech-house noises and a deeply-rooted sense of tension. Aude's beats are there, and it seems the track could break into his mix of Rihanna's "Rockstar 101" at any point. Dave Aude gives the track his all, and the nostalgic elements of the mix definitely add a level of intrigue to the mix which, otherwise, sounds like a mass of noises conjoined together in a rhythmic way. This isn't to say it isn't a guilty pleasure to dance to, but there are more coherent offerings available.
Offer Nissim
Offer Nissim is just as self-indulgent in his mix of “Girl Gone Wild” as Aude or Avicii, working in some mugam singing in the intro before descending into his frothy mix of beats and synths. Nissim has this fantastic ability to weave house and trance together to achieve some thick beats and ethereal sounds, and with Madonna's vocals layered on top, Nissim aims to turn “Girl Gone Wild” into an epic experience. And it comes close, too. At the end of the day, the track has lost too much of itself in Nissim's hands, and has not been given enough of a separate identity to warrant that.
Dada Life
Dada Life, the dark and quirky dance group responsible for some truly twisted tracks, also take a stab at Madonna's ode to girls just having fun. The vibe is just as twisted as ever, taking the original production and dredging it through the slime and muck for some heavy bass synths punctuated by insistent and merciless beats. As a casual listener, this one is pretty engaging and would make for a seriously fun walk or car ride, but perhaps the disassociation between melody and harsher elements of their mix might make it hard to connect with on the floor. Or it will hit just hard enough to go crazy to.
Justin Cognito
Justin Cognito (haha, like Justin Time) gives his mix quite a lot of bass growl in between his synths. The curious thing about this mix, is that it seems to interpolate both Benassi's original production as well as DJ Antoine's “Welcome to St. Tropez,” perhaps as a method of pointing out how the original track perhaps reminded him of the earlier track. It's a fun, busy mix with some heavy beats worth dancing to. And a little dubstep/breakbeat during the middle, to give it some spice. Not a bad offering over all.
Lucky Date
Diving into late 90s and early 2000s territory on his mix, Lucky Date throws some heavy instrumentation into his mix of “Girl Gone Wild.” I feel a resurgence of Robbie Tronco or Zombie Nation on this mix, which is neither a bad nor a good thing. This mix has good intentions, but at the end of it I'm feeling a little disengaged, kind of like I do when I listen to circuit music.