This is my favourite mash-up so far! The fantastic retro-soul of Raphael Saadiq´s Sometimes set to the mellow groove of Miss Joanna Law´s cover version of First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face). Joanna Law has released a string of superb downtempo singles in the early 90´s under her own name and she was also part of early triphop/breakbeat project Pressure Drop . Her luscious vocals were often used for dance-tracks by other producers. Raphael Saadiq was a founding member of Tony! Toni! Toné! in the 1980´s and he continues to work as producer and solo artist. His 2011 album The Way I See It is considered as one of the best retro soul albums. Composition and production are a tribute to the classic soul sound of the 1960s. While the album sounds like it really comes from that era, it´s never in danger of becoming a pastiche. The original First Time Ever (I Saw Your Face) is a cover of a folk song by Ewan McColl from 1956. It´s been covered numerous times especially in the 1960s and 1970´s. Most famously in a version by Roberta Flack. Law´s version was used as an acappella by Coldcut on their seminal Mix CD Journeys By DJ in 1995 and a few years later it was used by Way Out West for the amazing progressive/trance banger The Gift. For this remix/mash-up I substituted the sparse, minimal drums of Saadiq´s song with the the drums and the bass line of Law´s "Mellow Groove Mix". I had to speed up Sometimes considerably to synchronize both songs. In the process I pitched Saadiq´s voice down. Both songs have piano lines which flow together perfectly and the backing vocals singing "sometimes" every few bars fit amazingly well with Law´s vocals. It´s these moments, when two songs, that don´t have anything in common merge together as something completely new and original. This mix was done -as all my mixes- in realtime with the free Virtual DJ program. No overdubs and edits were used apart from the tools that the program offers. The video uses parts of a documentary about the New York World´s Fair 1964.
2021-06-15
2021-06-07
Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy (Missing Parts Remix)
Combining a seminal trip-hop anthem with deep-house? Yes, please! The piano and vocal parts of Nellee Hooper´s remix of Unfinished Sympathy are "ad libbed" to the groove of Machine by John Talabot. The result is almost abstract POP! Especially the second half creates something completely new out of the two sources. And combined with the video...see for yourself!
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