moloko - sing it back (herbert's tasteful dub)

first of all i want to send some love to dj bas el gharib of the plastic love crew that played this in a recent mix and reminded me of it again. then again, i was probably going to write about this track eventually as i've played it plenty of times over the years. good dj's know when to dust off some classics and place them in a modern context, since there are tracks nowadays that are sharing the same type of sounds and aesthetics.

despite what most people think the original does not sound like a disco throwback, it's more in line with moloko's prior output. in the first half of the song it consists of a mark brydon chopping up and reconstructing a jazzy drum break and róisín murphy's sweet vocals on top. as the song progresses you hear a didgeridoo-like bass sound and more structure in the drums.

there was a whole lot of remixes that was ordered up and they followed two particular guidelines. either they used mark brydon's contributions to the track or they just used róisín murphy's vocals. all of the remixes were in housier territories or tempo as the original was made at that tempo. the only exception to the tempo was dj plankton (aka mark brydon)'s dub that is in halftime and levent canseven's ragtimey "1930 mix"

most of the version from the peppermint jam direction (boris dlugosch, mousse t, michi lange, levent canseven) and booker t were of the other route. i don't think brydon is crying blood over they ignored his parts as they were successful on dancefloors and the charts.

the efforts from todd terry, the dope smugglaz*, herbert and of course dj plankton/mark brydon were of the first route with regard to them, they are more interesting musically. i think it's weird that todd terry's remix didn't became that big as the boris dlugosch remix since terry was still a high profiled producer/remix at the time. but i'm not here to talk about that version as it's matthew herbert's rerub that will always have top billing in my book.

he actually made two versions of the song but only the dub is easy to find online and to purchase digitally, his "falling away mix" can be heard as a sample on the nuloop store. i have heard the full version and it's far more "uptempo" than his dub but i think the dub is better musically. matthew herbert's skill has been for me to take a set of sounds and twist & reshape them so they are worked into this one very original piece of music.

one of the most striking things on this remix of "sing it back" has to be drums and i really think he one upped mark brydon's chopping. they form such a crunchy backbone to that track when they are stripped of the reverb that brydon threw on. herbert doesn't only twist the percussive sounds or the pads that were provided but he also tend to throw the shift on the vocals. all of this aural trickery is being done to form this really deep piece of house with a great groove.

listen here (youtube)

*might i add that this has to be one of the stupidest monikers of all time