Bleep

Hikaru Utada had taken not just Japan but the whole world by storm in 1998 when they released their debut album First Love at age 16, and the hype has hardly wavered ever since. Over ten albums later, they took stock of an illustrious career with their first greatest hits compilation SCIENCE FICTION, and the celebrations continue into 2025 as one of its new original tracks is highlighted with a string of remixes.

Produced with Floating Points who struck a brilliant musical friendship with Utada during the making of their previous album Bad Mode, ‘Electricity’ revolves around warm analogue synths threaded in with acoustic guitar, piano flourishes from Hinako Omori, and twirling flute and sax. It’s a smooth and soulful pop song pulsating with many worlds of music beneath it, making it ripe for reinterpretation as Utada turns to the dancefloor to amplify the song’s original message of capturing the “energy of people’s connections”.

Arca taps into the electrical and sci-fi themes as she drenches Utada’s vocals in wobbling autotune, getting into the heart of the track as she meets Utada’s stuttering chorus with a plethora of synthetic manipulations, sharp and slippery arpeggios, and the deep thumps of her leftfield rhythms. Karen Nyame KG meanwhile pushes ‘Electricity’ with the lush forward motion of Adro house, shakers bristling with energy while a focus on the amapiano leaning bassline makes the whole track float. salute travels even further into classic club territory, finding connection and invigorating energy through shiny, bouncing garage house that filters the original track into kaleidoscopic synth bursts at its peak.

Hikaru Utada enlists three of electronic music’s modern luminaries to take their track ‘Electricity’ to new heights.