Is it ever acceptable to remix a classic?

Your favourite new track has been doing the rounds for a few months and you get a shiver down your spine whenever you hear it in the rave. Then comes some amazing news: there's a remix package coming out and you're going to get three new reworks of a banger you just can't get enough of. Remixes are a tricky one though.

Sometimes they sound much better than the OG mix, sometimes they're a functional edit and sometimes you're left with a bitter taste in your mouth because the producer who's taken charge has mauled your personal fave. This is standard procedure for all new releases but classic tracks should be protected from the perils of a remix. Unfortunately, they're not.

Is it ever really acceptable to remix a classic? We're talking stone-cold legendary tunes, the ones you can ID without even thinking after one or two beats, the stuff that is the holy grail of electronic music.

Take 'Blue Monday' for example. The New Order classic is undoubtedly one of the most instantly recognisable tracks in dance music history and it goes without saying it still absolutely bangs in a club. There are several remixes of this track floating about online but the version that's split people right down the middle is Eric Prydz's monumental re-imagining.

Despite not having an official release, the remix is a staple of his sets and is a crowd favourite. It's a churning beast with little in the way of subtly and teases a drop for an achingly long period before it finally explodes. One version of it is taken from Prydz's Epic 4.0 show and it comes complete with a sample of 'Harder Better Faster Stronger' thrown in for good measure.

Some people have fallen absolutely in love with it, posting comments on the YouTube video like "WOW! I'm nerdgasming here" and "Holyyyyy epic drooop". But some people haven't taken kindly to the hyperactive remix, with "what a heap of shit!" and "this really really sucks big time" popping up in defence of the original.

On the surface it's pretty heinous. It's a wild and unrelenting blend of things that by themselves are good but together sound like someone's thrown up a few well worn samples and some big kick drums and been happy with the result. 'Blue Monday' is an anthem that doesn't really need remixing though, it stands up on its own two feet as one of the best there ever was and ever will be. Why bother trying to make something like that your own? Some hodge-podge gimmick is indulgent when in 99.9 per cent of cases the original will suffice. New Order knew what they were doing when they made it, so did the rest of the seminal acts who are responsible for the best of the best, which brings me neatly to my next point.

There are some acts that should be plain untouchable but that hasn't stopped numerous daring and brave producers throwing caution to the wind and risking turning legends into liabilities. Radiohead commissioned their official 'King Of Limbs' remix album which had the band's seal of approval from the off. Acts like Four Tet, Caribou and Jamie xx all offered up amazing new edits and that's fine, because they were official. However some of their classic tracks like 'Everything In Its Right Place' have been butchered by a few wayward minds.

A band as intricate and complex as Radiohead often lend themselves to be edited, but in the right context. Take the 'Gigamesh' remix of the Kid A classic. The trashy, tech-house edit of the masterful original has an unnecessary gloss and an almost cartoony feel. Like it's been beefed up for meatheads to consume in their droves. The combined plays on YouTube of the track go over a million and it begs the question, why do people enjoy hearing something that's just not as good as the original? Fair enough if some people like it, but if you prefer it to the original, then I feel sorry for you.

Even Underworld's 'Born Slippy' isn't safe from the remix treatment. Recently, I travelled to Vietnam to cover Epizode Festival and I heard the same tech-house remix of 'Born Slippy' twice and by the second time I was well and truly bored. To be honest, Andrew Meller's 'Reincarnation' mix isn't a bad remix of the track. Carl Cox, Nicole Moudaber, Edu Imbernon and Claptone have all been drawing for it and it's a pretty chunky 'hands-in-the-air' moment but does an already epic piece of dance music history really need to be remixed?!

The functional cut is far more assured and competent than some of the other remixes of classics floating about but once you get stuck into the minute and a half long breakdown of the original, you kind of just want to hear it untouched and unedited. Alas, a big, thick drop comes and all that's left of 'Born Slippy' are the looping vocals. It's not bad, it's not great, it's just a little pointless really. Why not just play the original in all its nostalgic glory rather than opt for a new remix? You'd get far more props from dancers for having the guts to play the cut that we fell in love with all those years ago rather than some attention-demanding remix.

But, having said all that, if you are going to remix a classic, make sure it's credible, make sure it doesn't take too much away from the original and make sure that it doesn't add in anything that tarnishes something loved by so many. Of course it's a fine line and when you're dancing away, a cheeky remix might work but 90 per cent of the time, it feels unwelcome and unattractive to say the least.

Play 'Blue Monday'.

Play 'Born Slippy'.

Play 'Everything In Its Right Place'.

And so on... Play the classics and play them with pride.

Funster is Mixmag's Deputy Digital Editor and he'll stop dancing if you play a shit remix. Follow him on Twitter here