Hikaru Utada has tapped London’s ‘Rhythm Goddess’ Karen Nyame KG to reimagine their electromagnetic 2024 song, ‘Electricity.’
Karen Nyame KG's new remix, while certainly primed for the dancefloor, also “captures this energy of people's connections,” just as Utada had intended when they wrote the song — this time with a brand-new rhythm and refreshed energy.
Watch the official visualiser here:
Utada’s latest collaborator is a DJ and producer of Ghanaian heritage, whose body of work reverberates with the vibrant, eclectic sounds of the African diaspora: from South African house and Amapiano to Jersey club. She counts the likes of PinkPantheress and Kelela in her stacked catalogue of remixes.
‘Electricity’ was previously featured as the only new track on Utada’s 2024 greatest hits album, SCIENCE FICTION, which celebrated 25 years since the Japanese American pop icon’s 1998 major debut. A music video, conceptualised and art directed by YOSHIROTTEN, was also filmed for the song, a co-production with acclaimed electronic musician Sam Shepherd a.k.a. Floating Points.
Coinciding with the release of the Karen Nyame KG remix, a special installation of the visual narrative project NINE STORIES (named after the J.D. Salinger 1953 short story collection of the same name) is going to be mounted at the Expo '70 Pavilion, Expo Commemorative Park in Osaka, Japan. NINE STORIES captures Utada’s SCIENCE Fiction Tour 2024 through the lenses of 9 distinguished photographers, across 9 different stops on the tour: Kazuhei Kimura (Fukuoka), Chikashi Suzuki (Aichi), Mayumi Hosokura (Saitama), Rinko Kawauchi (Miyagi), Daido Moriyama (Tokyo), John Yuyi (Taipei), Wing Shya (Hong Kong), Takashi Homma (Osaka), and Rika Noguchi (Kanagawa). The Osaka NINE STORIES installation runs from 14 to 24 February, and a photography exhibition will also be held at New Gallery in Jimbocho, Tokyo, from 7 to 30 March. The eponymous photobook officially goes on sale on 21 March. (For details about pre-orders and limited edition merchandise, head to this site.)
A pre-release party for the remix was held on 14 February with Karen Nyame KG herself at the Expo ’70 Pavilion, the site of the NINE STORIES installation, and was followed by a release party at the day’s close at Circus Osaka. Music Bar Lion, Tokyo, is also hosting a release party on 15 February.
Listen to the Karen Nyame KG remix here, now available on major streaming services:
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