alexander o'neal - love makes no sense (brothers in rhythm remix)

this came from a cdsingle i found in a charityshop and i grabbed it since it had brothers in rhythm remixes and it came from the early nineties. seaman and anderson barely failed with their remixes and when i took it home and listened to it i wasn't dissapointed.

i knew alexander o'neal from his 80's singles with "fake" and "critizise" so i knew he could sing well but i hadn't heard of this song before. found out when listening that it was a slower 90's new jack swing affair but with a serious thump and i liked the song in it's original shape. i thought brothers in rhythm transposed it onto the house floor perfectly as the elements where there to take and reshape.

much like their killer remix of janet jackson's "if" and a few others, it sort of sounded like a cross between american garage and italian house but with the uk scene in mind. the key thing to their sound was that piano and they used to add it if it wasn't present in the original but in this case it's a big part of the song.

the way the song builds creates great tension and it reflects well as o'neal's voice has subtle frustration in mind. the hook works to this advantage because isn't that conventional. the chorus sounds more like a bridge and when building a house track like this   it provides the right amount of release.

along with the breaks that the song provides in the second half where the organ, piano, keys and o'neal gets their small solo parts with parts of o'neal's adlibs on top. i really like how they used them in both the build and the latter part of the song as it feels natural to the song.

that's the bottom line with why i love remixes by brothers in rhythm and a few others who were we're appointed to do the main house/club version. they made the track and it felt like it was the original version and used the vocals and instrumentation with great execution.

listen here (youtube)

september - we can do it

first time i heard about swedish dance project september was when i saw the video on swedish music channel ztv and they played "la la la (never give it up)". it was pushed as a potential hit song by the staff and it was a nice song that i eventually bought the single for it. i eventually found out that project was in this state was jonas van der burg on production and petra marklund singing.

while it was a good song and i still like it, i found the next single to be better. like the first song i saw the video for "we can do it" on ztv but unlike that it wasn't as good. even though the video for "la la la" was just marklund walking around a sunny stockholm morning with a microphone connected to a speaker with a really long wire.

never mind that since i'm focusing on the music and this song had a better hook and was musically more appealing. when i first heard the s.o.s. band's 1980 hit "take your time (do it right)", after hearing "we can do it", it was an oh snap moment.  the funny part is that i knew that the chorus is actually a lift since it's listed in the credits on the single.

when i say that it's musically more appealing, i may be talking out of my arse since both singles are cousins aurally even though they are different else wise. the sound is this dancepop thing where it's clean cut house with the all focus is up top since the rhythm section tend to be standard.

the difference between the former single and this one was that "la la la" was driven by this strumming guitar and a string section. "we can do it" kept the guitar to a more nile rodgers sort of thing but not really and the song was musically more keyboard driven and the bassline wasn't just this one note offbeat thing.

i also bought the three following september singles and have always been quite into the project. i thought it was well earned when marklund gained fame in the uk & the us with the breakout single "looking for love". her international fame came after she changed recordlabels and unlike stockholm records, catchy tunes decided to try to go outside of sweden with success. later on she also became a household name here in sweden after she appeared on "så mycket bättre, the swedish version of dutch tv-show "the netherland best singers".

all of love to petra marklund and all love for this song.

buy here (itunes)

note: i'm not sure if the original version is available outside of swedish territories since on 7digital and uk itunes you can only find the re-recorded version which i don't think is as good.

delon reid - i want it that way

this one comes from a greensleeves riddim cd that i bought a while ago and i bought it blind as it wasn't a riddim that i knew but it had enough interesting names for me to want to check it out. after taking it home and listening to the first track, which was capleton's "caan hold we dung", i was amazed. to be honest while capleton's track is among the best on the cd, it wasn't his effort that stunned me.

it was those pianostabs that starts the track and it's they are that infamous fill from britney spears' "...baby one more time". the way the riddim is worked is that fill which goes into this traditional digital dancehall riddim formula of wonky drums and fat bass. here it is also treated with a pad that plays some chords and some small keyboard twitterings.

the virus riddim was produced by tony thomas, mikey williamson and delon reid and for his outing on this riddim he decides to take a stab at another song from the cheiron camp. being the backstreet boys' "i want it that way" and this crosspolination of cheiron pop music and ultra modern dancehall music is nothing short of brilliant.

reid sings the song as faithfully as he wants to take it and tackles this song in a good way. even the bridge where it gets a bit over the top in the original goes on the same tip and he pulls it off well. to be honest, all of this may be rear view mirror kitsch but i love this track.

buy here (7digital)

mj cole - crazy love (crazy dubb)

i had no relation to "crazy love" before buying the cdsingle two years ago, unlike "sincere" it was not a song that i knew. i had a clue that it was from one of the biggest selling garage albums at the time but i did not own that. probably had to with something that i've told before, i really did not get garage for a long time.

chances is that if i had found the single before that i would have gone more ape over michi lange's house versions, which are well done, really classy and worth writing about. then again this single didn't have any weak versions but for me the standout was mj cole's own rugged & bass heavy dub.

this was obviously meant for the clubs as the original goes on the lighter side as the drums are more compact, the strings play regularly and elizabeth troy's vocals dominate the track. i purposely wrote it like that as the changes are mainly at those three aspects.

i really love what mj cole did to his own track and how he shifted the focus from the top of the aural spectrum to the bottom. the bass that comes right after a vocal drop with troy's vocals repeating "don't leave me lonely" is thick and hits perfectly. as the strings are cut up it is also the melodic aspect as the bassline plays the chords of the string ostinato

the only thing that bugged me with track was why cole took out the first kick, in a listening aspect it didn't bother me at all but when mixing it really did. i kept forgetting that from the top it starts on two and that's not the first time mj cole has done that as his dub of valerie etienne's "misunderstanding" works in the same way.

listen here (youtube)

anna ternheim - what have i done (a forest remix)

this one is a youtube find and it came to my attention shortly after hearing the original which i love and is a brilliant song. ternheims original composition had this melancholia within all the slightly uptempo feel of track. it also had so much great tension and release built within the track and the way it breaks down with the orchestral theme is immense.

but fact in mind is that the best part of the song besides the song and lyrical content itself is that bassline, the way it drives the track. a whole lot of people commented that it actually copies the bassline of roxy musics "love is the drug" and in comparison it does have similarities but just that. i was quite pleased for people bring that to mind since i've never heard "love is the drug" before that and i love that track also

but about the track at hand then and because of it's nature "what have i done" lends itself to remixing and there is actually an official one by familjen, but i don't think much of that. there isn't a pure acapella released to do any substantial remixes but ternheim had a tendency to do acoustic versions of her songs and release them.

so swedish producer a forest took advantage of that and worked on his version which is a soundscapey techno version but with a serious drive. when i first heard it i was gobsmacked by it's awesome nature and loved that deep bass and the way ternheims intentionally delayed vocals & piano works when emphasising a dub element.

ternheims vocal is so remarkable with this take and she pours a little more emotion into it and with the dark pads sending you shivering feel to the skin it's nothing short of amazing. as much as i love the original i love this version as well.

listen here (youtube)

the heritage orchestra - the 1890 affair

this is a suite from an album i picked up a long time ago and while i sort of had a hunch of what it was. i was however not listening to gilles petersons radio at the time so i didn't have the full picture. i had gathered that the heritage orchestra was a contemporary jazz ordeal that worked as a rather big band and drawing influences from the west london club music and classical music.

the selftitled lp comes with six compositions and is a well done album that starts off with a slower funk number that is greeting you with a shower of strings and horns but then goes into shuffling drums. it gives you a great idea of what the lp will being to the table along with two vocal numbers and some nice funky uptempo regions as well.

topping the whole thing off is this suite, "the 1890 affair", that comes in three pieces and was written by bandleader jules buckley. it starts of with a mighty bang which sets it apart from the previous ones which goes a bit slower and it has this string ostinato which has you hooked. the first part of the suite for some reason got me thinking of adam f's "circles" because of it's chords and bassline.

the full twelve minutes of the composition goes through a variety of modes and shifting tempo and it's reflective when it goes into the second movement. here it leaves the drum & bass flirt and goes into swanky jazz as you hear this heavy tenor saxophone solo by tom challenger with some subtle wahwah guitar backing it up. all the sounds surrounding the sax has a more chaotic feel but it feels coherent as the upright bass gets to be the grounding part.

it eventually goes back into double time again with guitars, horns and strings all building up this crescendo that is the payoff for this string part that brings in the final movement. here the regular drums are left behind for congas and percussion that plays the rest. the strings play in halftime while the bass plays in full time. as it all winds down an electric bass gets it's shine along with a piano and it ends beautifully.

buy here (7digital)

swell session vs. domu - a heart to cover for (featuring elsa esmeralda)

i've been meaning to do an entry on any of the tracks from andreas saag/swell session's 2007 album "swell communications" for a while now and it took a while to pinpoint the exact one but for the record. there isn't a bad track on the album and i could write about any of the songs but i picked the first track of the album. which is a cliché in it self if it hadn't been for the fact that it's immense.

saag's modus operandi for the album was to work with some of his musical contemporaries, friends and producers he liked and for this track it's a collaboration with british producer dominic stanton aka domu. on the album it's split a two parter with a two minute intro and by saag's own story, he prepared some music before the session and then completed a track.

the end result is this chunky broken beat meets hip-hop kind of ordeal, sort of flying lotus and rustie, but with a underlining soulful r&b influence. saag says that he decided to split it for what was going to end up on the album and domu handled the intro which is more of the former as it's just rhythm with chopped up sounds, scratching and a filtered steady bass.

it also does it's work as being an intro as it teases in the main part which saag was going to do. the vocal that starts the track is a sign of esmeraldas bright presence on the track. her singing and lyric is a part to what makes me love this song but fact is that i got hooked to that bassline.

which is odd since it's not a bassline like a "push the feeling on" or "body language" or "lfo" or a track that is known for it's bassline and it's really something that responds to the backbeat. i love it and i remember it getting into my head so hard that i had to steal it for some other beat i was working on.

the only thing that baffled me is how this didn't get bigger attention than it did, it should have crossed over to the mainstream radio circuit as it's perfect in the adult contemporary scene as well as the less mainstream r&b dancefloor.

buy here (junodownload)

varano - leaving my troubles behind (håkan lidbo's hiphouse mix)

i bought this single for "leaving my troubles behind" a few years ago, right after i discovered the single for "dead end street" which i didn't know of but had a trentemøller remix which got me interested. while that was truly a downtempo single with downtempo remixes this had some uptempo versions and featured swedish rapper chords whom i'm a fan of.

the remixes was done by danish act money your love, british house and broken beat producer raw deal and swedish house producer håkan lidbo. i knew of the latter two but i quite like all of the versions on the single but this one has gotten the most play over the years.

it also, unlike raw deal, keeps chords' verses and i like the topic at hand and how he incorporated the same intro, both vocal & musical but then kicks right along. lidbo keeps much of the strings and horns from the original and puts them to good use. the track itself is a textbook cracking house number with some fierce bass and while it's labeled "hiphouse" as it's technically is, it doesn't sound like the late 80's/early 90's kind.

overall it's a great remix of a great track. well recommended.

buy here (itunes)

nicole willis & the soul investigators - invisible man

i don't remember when i discovered this album that "invisible man" was from but i do know it was a short while after sharon jones & the dap-kings have gotten their big break. it was about making soul and funk that actually sounded like the real mccoy in a revival fashion. i believe timmion records we're feeling inspired of what tru thoughts and daptone was doing and released some singles first and eventually an album.

while sharon jones and the dap-kings are based out new york this band came from finland out of all places. now throwing all the prejudice out the window, cratediggers and musicnerds know that finland has their share of funky music. while previous projects in the seventies may have been aided by foreign instrumentalist, in this case it's an american singer who is living and operating in finland.

as someone who generally doesn't listen to many albums nowadays in full and in multiple hearings it says something when i say this. i've listened to this record so many times i can't count and i can easily talk about any track on it and i really don't find any weak tracks on it. ok, "my four leave clover" bugs me lyrically but it's only that one.

"invisible man" is one of the many upbeat numbers but it's also one the number that points towards the motown sound the most and it's brilliant. from the starting drums it picks up the space fast but moves in a perky bounce. i like how the vocals are arranged as willis does her own backup in call & response like the motown records. lyrically it talks about regretfulness in a former relationship and there isn't a cheerful topic but it's done in that mid 70's motown styling of juxtaposing emotions musically.

the reason i keep mention motown is while there is obvious links toward the northen soul sound and it sometimes sounds like a pastiche of soul music, some tracks that are original have arrangements that remind of known records. on the "keep reachin' up" album all of the songs we're lyrically original unlike the first unlike the first output by sharon jones & dap-kings but musically i wouldn't say so.

this one in particular is very similar to martha & the vandellas classic "heatwave" and i'm well sure that the similarities are intended and i quite like how they did it. nicole willis sings in sort of the same flow as martha reeves and the band plays "invisible man" within the same shuffle.

however nicole willis & the soul investigators do this so well that it's obviously a tribute to the song.

buy here (7digital)

coldcut - autumn leaves (bare leaves)

the original was a song i believe i saw on mtv back in the day but it had no recollection of it when i heard the beautiful ambient irresistible force remix by mixmaster morris a decade later. after a while i grew infatuated with the song and listened to the original version by coldcut and then heard the nat king cole version which i thought then was the absolute "original".

after a while i did my proper research and found out that it was not and it's originally a french song/poem from 1945 called "les feuilles mortes" and was written by jacques prévert. johnny mercer wrote the english version in 1947 and among the first to record it was jo stafford. the song became a standard that a hundreds have recorded a version of but the most relevant to the coldcut version is nana mouskouri's from 1979.

if i have done my research right this is the version that adds the verse that coldcut also used for their rendition. this verse fleshes out the lyrical concept of the song and it's these parts that i like the most in it's portrail of seasons as parts of the relationship. especially the lines "autumn leaves fall and then swept out of sight, so is the memory of love that we knew"

coldcuts version is held up with janis alexander's magnificent vocal and it's what made me pay attention as it cuts through with all it's emotion. musically the original album version is very typical of coldcut and the early 90's hiphop sounds but the problem i have gotten on recent hearings is that it dates the song as well.

the vocal is timeless and so is approach with the piano and the string arrangement but then comes the drums and while the drums from tom scott's "sneakin' in the back" works, the drums from ike & tina turner's "cussin', cryin' and carryin' on" does not.

well atleast in the raw shape they are in on the album version and i should note that it's weird to hear me complain about the use of good drumbreaks like this but i don't think it fits with the track at hand. in the radio version i believe they are taken out and on the rendition on coldcut's best of compilation, both drum breaks are replaced with some regular drum hits and it works well for the song.

however there is two other versions of the song that stripped it all down. labelled similarly they are called "naked leaves" and "bare leaves" and they are identified with the former having an occasional bassdrum every second bar or so, having a different intro and outro and being longer. "bare leaves" is also available on the album while the "naked leaves" was on singles.

"bare leaves" starts with the piano and janis alexanders voice and when the bridge hits you hear this sweeping violin that hits once. it then slowly brings in a second piano line and rest of the strings that plays when the most famous lyrical part is being sung. as alexander is repeating "autumn leaves, start to fall" it all builds as a crescendo with piano going into an arpeggio as the coda of the song.

this final part just gets to me every time, it's that beautiful.

listen here (youtube)

jody watley - off the hook (kenlou mix)

this is from a single that i bought at a secondhand-store and i didn't know the track at hand but it did include remixes by masters at work, booker t & soul solution. i also had a clue about it being one of the last pure r&b albums of her career as it started shifting towards a more house-oriented sound.

it's also where i got interested in watley's music although i can honestly say that i didn't really know her previous records but i knew of her. but back to this track at hand and this wasn't really the version i first liked on the single, i thought booker t's more straightforward garage rerub was the best. then i really listened to the kenlou remix and my opinion changed.

louie vega & kenny dope gonzales created two sets of remixes with a main mix and a dub, they were billed as m.a.w. and kenlou. both very soulful bumping us garage numbers but the former being a bit more focused on the added instrumentation and the latter being a little rawer.

the track starts out with some low-key vocal samples and a few timbale & cowbell hits and then drums come in full force. the drums have their lively shuffle and the groove works in a bounce that reminds me of the uk funky movement. which isn't that surprising as rhythms the late 90's us garage and artists such as masters at work and mood II swing have been clear influences.

the production in general is quite clean the way all the sounds have their space even within the more chaotic regions is well done. the groovy bassline cuts through well and same goes for the horns that are a bigger part of the m.a.w. main mix are here in accents but take place in the chorus

watley's wonderful vocals are also treated to a backing up by a choir of talented backup vocalists that include eddie stockley, karlon taylor brooks jr., sheila epps, kenny bobien & russel soxton. mended together with cassandra lucas and watley herself from the original recording. they compliment her singing and really emphasise the subtle gospel feel in her voice.

to conclude this is a track in the best of masters at work stylings and i believe this remix eventually leaded to them to produce a track for her album. also the single "i love to love" together with vibraphone legend roy ayers on masters at works own label.

listen here (youtube)

massive attack vs. mad professor - radiation ruling the nation (protection)

the original was one of those songs that i saw on mtv when i was younger and i knew of massive attack for "unfinished sympathy" but the difference was that i like that song. i do know it was to do with having problems with tracey thorn when she sounds really dreary.

eventually i did catch on and by then i had listened to more than the first two minutes of the song and heard that wonderful slow but heavy pulsating bass & rhythm. i didn't know what a tb-303 was or the concept of acidlines but i did know that was the best part of the song.

that heavy rhythm was amplified in mad professors dub version and it is one my favourite tracks on his dub remix album but i like "i spy (spying glass)" a bit more. the professor takes a very rhythmic approach to his version and the samples from james browns "the payback" are removed as the focus is shifted of them.

it starts out with the dreamy pad from the original and eventually you hear a long & round bass stab that hits hard. after a while some reverbed out sound are introduced into the soundscape once the rhythm gets going. thorns vocal is reduced to occasional short fragments loaded with reverb and delays.

the acidline is given a bigger space into the realm but it still floats on in the background until halfway in where the other sounds are put in a backseat role for a near solo. it was when i heard this first time that i really fell in love with the track. i'd always associated dub with such slower rhythms and while this does floats at 85bpm it does have the movement as the acidline & drum rhythms are chugging on.

buy here (7digital)

jamelia featuring beenie man - money (capital t club mix)

when i look for cd-singles in bargain bins and second hand stores i tend to have an eye on pop songs as well as you can find good remixes not available elsewhere. usually i was on the look out for straight up house versions and used to care less about other remixes but after a while my focus shifted.

on the r&b singles i started to look for the garage versions & hiphop mixes and on the american singles that meant new york/new jersey garage but on the uk singles that meant uk garage, 2-step and later on grime rerubs.

but i don't buy any pop single just for the fun of it... actually that's not true. when i had more storage space i would but then with less and less space it became songs i do like in it's original form or a remixer i know turns out quality. in this case i did like the original version and found beenie man's part to be entertaining as he tries to be operatic when mimicking the hook.

this single included the radio edit, an slower r&b mix by colin emmanuel who also produced the original and two remixes smokin' beats and capital t. both version are edited down on the single which in terms of cin rules is normal except for the full versions would have easily gotten in under 20minutes. i know that it was more of a case of radio edits on the singles so any dj wanting to play it had to buy the vinyls.

anyhow smokin' beats does a house version and this would have been the version i'd gone gaga over but i bought this single after i started getting into garage so it's on the capital t remix i went nuts over. trevor davy (aka capital t and rugged & tough productions) did a bouncy but driving 2-step version and from the initial drum hits and teasing arpeggio i was in love.

the bassline is deep but almost wavey-like at times as the sinewaves are bent when they hit in the lower regions. the drums aren't really smacking hard but they deliver well and it's a quite shuffling and skipping pattern that reflect in the bassline.

the usual problems with timestretched vocals is that if the vocal is delivered too fast it will amplify itself once you start to mess with it and in this case it works out perfect. since the flow from both jamelia and beenie man is delivered quite slow and therefore it isn't that noticeable in the sped up tempo.

the end result is a really good remix of a really good original. well recommended.

listen here (youtube)

rob dougan - clubbed to death (spoon mix by carl craig)

this one came in my peripheral a few years ago and i was actually expecting a techno version being that it's carl craig responsible for the remix. the second thing that i didn't expect was how it would sound as the famous orchestral piece used and the piano melody is devoid in this version.

but neither we're they in most of the remixes in the original '95 release where this track was released under the name "rob d". peshay, la funk mob (note the version they did without dougan) and carl craig went to town and used the original material as they pleased. the only version that kept the piano as it is was by wax doctor.

carl craig's revision of the track starts off with the orchestral piece but regrooved as it loops after two beats and goes down a semi-note for two beats. it's then again pitched down and stays like that for four beats, this re-jig serves as the main theme for the track. it also shows what route craig was planning for the track as it's a slow instrumental hip-hop retake with plenty of experimentation.

sounds are twisted left and right and laid under a bedrock of a deep hitting kick drum and reverbed clap. the kick has this offsetting weird bass trail but it's actually the kick reversed which is in it's own pattern. i've tried playing the whole track in reverse and if the clap wasn't that full of reverb it would have been rather decent.

i quite like this remix now but it took me a long time to appreciate it as the first time i heard it i didn't understand it at all. you can scream out trendwhore and that i'm only talking about this version since carl craig's name & person has gotten a big revival but that doesn't really tell the whole story.

i could have written on the peshay remix but what more else is it to say that here is this nice amen roller with an atmospheric intro*. or la funk mob's second version named the darkside mix which also goes down on the slow instrumental hip-hop route but is less interesting aurally.

listen here (youtube)

*i know that i could easily write about it but fact is that it would be a combination of this one and the entry on source direct's "shimmer"

jessica folcker - tell me what you like

when this came out it was talked about being one of the last projects by denniz pop before his death. i can't really confirm it as it is a cheiron product like most and the cheiron collective were involved with a lot of productions at the time.

folcker had been part of the artist stable and done vocal work for some of the eurodance projects including dr. alban, e-type, amadin, anna book's 90's revival and leila k. on the latter she sang on being "electric" where folcker's chorus, leila's high energy rap & denniz pop's production is a perfect combination and i love that track to date.

as the story goes, folcker was first discovered when working in dr. alban's clothing store and she was an aspiring singer. i don't know more than that but it did eventually land to her own career and with this track it started with a bang.

it's what i refer to as a near perfect pop song in the cheiron style and it really personified what would come out from that collective. very clean production and instrumentation was was on point but didn't go overboard as it was a vehicle for the singer, not the musicians involved. jessicas singing is like her previous back-up vocal efforts and rings clearly of talent and her voice is nothing short of amazing.

while most of the producers in the cheiron collective had their own style and while max martin where using his old hard rock influences in extremely subtle ways and amatiello & lundin (amadin) were a little more dance oriented, denniz pop had a number of influences and reggae was one that appeared in his productions.

this one included and it can be heard though the piano, the guitar & the bassline although the latter derives much more from funk. song & structure wise it's a fairly standard verse/bridge/chorus/verse thing of the 90's where it wasn't completely a race to get to the chorus within the first 30seconds of the song.

it does start with it but as it's proceeded with beats and an emphasis that it was a just a tease for the verse it doesn't really count, at least in my book. but the reason i mentioned britney's "...baby one more time" is that i noticed that this song and maybe a few others sparked a breakdown trend in the cheiron productions.

they tended to use ambient drops right near the end of the song right before the chorus repeats until fadeout. but here the drop is longer and included singing and it's a classic trick within music but i associate it with dance music where in the late mid 90's, the breakdowns became the focal point of the track.

luckily they didn't pervert those as it happened in dance music. anyhow great song, love it to death

listen here (youtube)

pingel - dance with me

i discovered this track when josefin johansson (aka josefinito) and kristofer jonzon took part of "musikhjälpen" (swedish version of dutch format "serious request") 2011 and they performed this track that was very much a pastische of an 80's/90's house track. it was seriously catchy and i liked it instantly and it was weird to know that josefinito could sing as she's more known as a comedian.

it was likewise with jonzon, but i did know that he was actually a great singer and musician as he performed on the show the year prior. he did some lovely renditions of berlin's "take my breath away", chris isaak's "wicked game", the rolling stones' "wild horses" and a few others. he had released an album prior to that also and i was transfixed to the idea to him as a balladeer & pop singer so it was weird him do something like this.

as mentioned this track is sort of throwback and it's showing in the style where the vocal edits are done with triggered samples as it was sampled. but it isn't the vocal that is carrying the track even though josefinito really belts it out in a nice way.

it's that driving bassline which has a near acid like quality and really want someone like kings of the universe to do a remix to take this song to the next level with a proper acidline in the mix. the way it breaks down near the end to the bass and it always evokes a resonant wiggle that i want to come in and explode. especially since the the bottom end goes into a lovely sharper buzz at the break

jonzon who i'm guessing produced the track did a fine job with working tr-909 samples for the rhythmical stomp and the overall synthesizer work. his own vocal presence on the track is almost frank farian-esque but better. both two did a bangup job with this track and i think the other tracks on their ep is quite nice as well as their kitschy electronic pop music really resonates with me well.

buy here (7digital)

herbie - right type of mood (dragonfly's jungle mix)

this is yet another track which was amongst the first records i bought back in the early noughties and i picked it up since i love the original. for some reason it still lingers in my head whenever i take the stockholm subway, especially since the video was shot in one of the carts. it only happens though when i go on the older type trains.

but for this remix it wasn't really a version i cared about until recently when i dug the track up since i also own it on cd-single. this is a cheiron/swemix product as it was produced by denniz pop & max martin and included remixes by douglas carr, amadin (john amatiello & kristian lundin) and mårten attling (dragonfly/mindbender).

the latter wasn't part of the cheiron collective but was part of stockholms dance scene on the more hardcore/techno site but also did remixes for some cheiron artists. attling's remix strip away the eurodance influences and goes for an atmospheric ragga jungle rerub. since herbie used to spit in that raggamuffin style it  the beats fit his vocal much better but i think it's all a matter of taste.

all of the remixes are quite dated in their style but this one holds up the best considering what it tries to do. there is a slight resurgence with this type of material and i can't really say that the original's euro-synths or douglas carr's staler house beats are relevant in this day and age.

attling opens his remix with herbie chriclow's opening hype ups over some nice pads but goes quickly into some hard-hitting drum breaks. the breaks used are "think" and "funky mule" but the latter are used to back up the "think" break. as usual with this type of jungle the bass is really subby and hits quite hard with it's deep sine stabs.

the track goes halfway into a ravey type break where you hear a time stretched "rude boy" vocal and some messed up organ sounds. the good thing is that these type of sections can really date a track but it doesn't go overboard and this is part of what makes this work 15+ years after it was originally released.

listen here (soundcloud)

röyksopp - sparks (m.a.n.d.y. remix)

i believe that the first time i heard this i did not like this at all but then again i didn't like any remixes of "sparks". anneli drecker's vocal was a part of what made the original really good along with the moody hiphop beats and atmosphere.

i later found out that the problems facing any remixer of this track to make it a dance version comes with the bpm of the original. it rolls around at 85 beats per minute and when a track originally lies with the region between 80-90 bpm it was known as to be a problem.

with certain vocals the time stretching wasn't as noticeable but if the original is sung fast or lethargic in a special manner it became accentuated when moved to a different tempo. nowadays with ableton having a time stretching algorithm that seems to do magic it is almost a thing of the past but this one came out in '03 and the mechanisms of logic, cubase and whatever programs were not cutting the mustard.

drecker's vocal is sung in a slower way but with some faster accentuation and unlike murk & losoul, m.a.n.d.y. pulled it off when handling the vocal. they also kept the chords and transform the feeling of the original into a moody techy house track. it also employs live bass or samples which i really like and it really drives the track well.

i think it's weird that i write about something like this as i know that i really hated it with a passion when i liked as it was part of the "trendhouse" i used to mock senselessly. no one really is going to understand that but trendhouse was a slur that me and a few others started to use towards the type of house that was called "electro-house" (eventually just "electro") or "minimal".

as we were music-nerds and/or enthusiasts and knew what the (then) actual incarnations of electro & minimal was we had a problem with what was referred to as what. i'm still not okay with something four on the floor being called electro but i'm less rabid about this nowadays.

buy here (beatport)

for the record roni size also did a remix that didn't have any troubles with the vocal in terms of time stretching but the quirky drumbreaks he employed were not any good.

joakim lone octet - melting blue ice (seiji remix)

this one is yet another track i discovered when i went on a crate dig with my good friends jan henrik & mikael. i found the tiger sushi remixed cd and saw some good names tweaking the original track, which for the record i have not heard until recently.

i already knew of dego's remix of "twice thinking" as i have that on another compilation but being a fan of seiji i was really interested of this one. on the first listen it gave me really good vibe as it starts with vibrant drums which for some reason i keep humming the call & response of nina simone's "see-line woman" over.

i am pretty sure that seiji did not sample those drums from it but simone or someone very similar sounding appears in this track. it was a bit of a shock of hearing that vocal sample come halfway into the track as i kept thinking of "see-line woman" in my head.

seiji takes something that is originally a moody downtempo jazz tune with some quirky rhythmical bits and reshapes it. the bass, the keys and chords are refitted onto powerful drums and it sets the tone from there. it starts of being very percussive but once the bass comes in it takes a more domineering role and i like how both rhythmical elements are really swinging.

the moody nature of the original does reflect itself when the keys and the long stringpads take part of the track and it sort of brings the track down in it's funky nature. however it does make it a more dynamic song and i really love the overall composition of the track.

listen here (youtube)

ol' dirty bastard - got your money (dj dee-kline & ed209 vocal mix)

i'm concluding the neptunes trilogy with a remix of the first tune that where i heard about the neptunes as a phenomenon along with kelis who is also featured on this track. i could babble on about some more about the original but it can be summarized as "i love it".

i heard about this remix a few years after i heard "got your money" and this was a time i didn't really understand this type of breaks. but once i caught on to the music it made sense and i love those frantic shuffling rhythms. the drums are smacking and the bass is heavy and it's really focused on those two elements as it's melodic elements are limited to warped midrangey synth-bass & a pad that plays long chords.

the only bad thing i can say about the remix is that it takes out the first verse which has the immortal line "i don't have a problem with you fucking me, i do have a problem with you not fucking me". otherwise this track is really banging and dee-kline & ed209 really took the neptunes bassline and where creative with it and made it heavier.

listen here (youtube)