In late 2008 the good folks over at Buffetlibre asked me if I’d like to contribute to a remix / covers project, the sequel to their successful Rewind project. Normally I’d run a mile from projects like this, the internet being full of often shoddy remix projects but Buffetlibre are known for quality and this project also included contributions from people like Bonde Do Role, AC Slater, Little Boots and The Young Punx so I knew the quality would be high. I chose something I’ve wanted to remix for a long time, Gwen McRae – ‘All This Love That I’m Giving’. Apart from the great Cassius sampling of this song (”Feeling For You”) and the even greater Jacques Lu Cont flip of that, I always felt this amazing song was strangely under-sampled. Maybe its just me but I have a real thing for slightly synthy funk & soul from the late 70s – early 80s.

Gwen McRae – All This Love That I’m Giving (JoolsMF Remix)

Next up is a remix of the El Guincho track ‘Kalise’. El Guincho is worth checking out if you don’t already know him, the sound is pretty unique but imagine if Animal Collective were a sampladelic, Exotica-obsessed band with a thing for writing relentlessly upbeat carnival jams.

El Guincho – Kalise (JoolsMF Remix)

Brooklyn’s Free Blood are another favorite band of mine. I discovered them through my buddies Alex and Will of Adventures Close to Home fame who released a few records on their label a year or so back. The singer John Pugh was in chkchkchk, a band I also love but Free Blood are pretty different and possibly even more interesting. Like chkchkchk, they’re musicians with a foot in the indie and the dance world and an equal grasp of underground experimentalism and pop/dance music. Where so many seem to fail at straddling these worlds, these guys excel. Think ESG making music with Zapp with Beck on the MPC and James Murphy producing.

Free Blood – Grumpy (JoolsMF Remix)

Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreak was a bit of a shock at first I’ll admit but, being the musical dilletante that I am, I liked his radical and slightly perverse change of direction. I keep on wondering what Kanye was listening to when he made that album, its actually quite odd in places, none more so than the stark Love Lockdown which features what I think are Taiko drums. Maybe the only example of traditional Japanese drumming in hip hop?. My remix sounds nothing like the original I should point out, its less bleak 808 starkness, more Jean Michel Jarre meets disco (?!)

Kanye West – Love Lockdown (JoolsMF Remix)

To finish here are a couple of remixes of two Grime stalwarts, Wiley & Lady Sovereign. Both pretty different to the originals too.

Lady Sovereign – So Human (JoolsMF Remix)

Wiley – Wearing My Rolex (JoolsMF Remix)

Tagged: Remix on Friday, August 28, 2009 · 6 Comments »