Lex releases Thom Yorke's other remix of MF DOOM's “Gazzillion Ear”

Lex Records has released Thom Yorke's “Man on Fire Remix” of MF DOOM's “Gazzillion Ear”, one of two remixes of the track he handed to the label in 2009. It is out to stream in Lex XX, a series of unreleased remixes for the London label's 20th year. Lex describes it as harsh noise and sirens at first, with a lurching funk track that comes clearer with each play.

The other mix came out first, credited simply as the “Thom Yorke Remix”, though he had delivered it as the “Monkey Hustle Remix” to tell the two apart. It was an iTunes-only bonus track on Born Like This in March 2009 and was on the “Gazzillion Ear” single in January 2010. The Man on Fire mix stayed with Lex, though Yorke played a revised version of it on BBC Radio 1 in September 2016, co-presenting Benji B's show.

J Dilla produced the original around a Giorgio Moroder sample. Lex calls it the best of the handful of tracks he and DOOM made together.

DOOM, Daniel Dumile, died in October 2020; his death was made public on 31 December. Lex had released three of his albums as a rapper and one of his beat records. When Dazed asked Yorke for his favourite rapper in 2013, he named DOOM. Ultimately to me it's not rapping at all, it's poetry.¹