I’m not sure if it’s just by coincidence that I’m buying more of them at the moment, but there seems to be a resurgence in the disco re-edit in the last couple of years. Maybe it’s the recent rise in popularity in all things cosmic or maybe I just didn’t notice it before. Either way there has been some great ones of late. Dutch label Moxie have been at it for a few years now and while I’m not a big fan of their latest, they have brought out some choice cuts, my faves been the - alleged - Carl Craig Specimen 12″s and these re-edits of Cerrone and Ralph Macdonald. On a fresher tip the second release from H-track features 2 killers, the a-side is some quality 80’s disco/funk with a stomping bassline; Love Game by Pure Energy which does it’s best to include as many breakdowns as possible without getting ridiculous. On the flipside Geraldine Hunt’s “Can’t fake the feeling” keeps up the quality control with some lush orchestration that I feel could have been stretched out further (we are in re-edit territory after all). Actually they should have just ditched the rubbish closer from Fun Boy Three and we’d be none the poorer for it.
Les Edits Du Golem is another one of these mysterious edit labels, who aren’t interested in letting you know who’s behind what. I’ve only picked up one of the twelves so far (though the others look intriguing too) and it turns out that my favourite off of it isn’t, eh, actually a re-edit at all. Spacerock sounds like it’s coming straight out of 1979 but it’s the work of some unknown french producers (who of course are really famous, hmmmm. Who cares). It’s proper epic Italo, that going on my last gig at the weekend will get everyone on the floor. Synths come swhooosing in all over the place, along with those random drum rolls so fond of Italo producers. It’s like some geek was just handed some new synths and is determined to cram as many sounds as he can from it into the one track. It’s over the top and fairly silly, but thats the whole point. The other 2 tracks are pretty enjoyable too - especially the B2 - but it’s all about the spacerock (possibly the most aptly named tune ever).
Similarly C.O.M.B.I is not letting on who’s behind their 2 releases. The 2nd of which contains two disco edits, both of which I’m equally fond of. The a-side is a straight up horns and strings peaktime stomper with added diva, while the flipside goes for a much slower, moodier bass and drum loop that slowly builds up with a great little guitar riff, vocals and finally, strings. Perfect late night/early morning material.
Finally Maelstrom is a new Scottish chap whose just appeared recently with some edits. So far I’ve not actually been particularly impressed by what I’ve heard bar the inside track on his Mindless Boogie 12″. Its a 110bpm or so growler, with some particularly over the top guitar histronics that brought a smile to my face. But the groove it’s laid over is more than enough to compensate for any amount of fret wankery.
Closing on the whole edits buzz, Maeltroms white label re-jig of Metro Area’s classic Miura is a good (bad?) example of a pointless re-edit. It pretty much goes with the main groove from the original and not much else. For me what made Miura such an amazing song was the change from that groove into that rising bass/vocal that could melt the hardest of hearts. As a comparison, the Moxie/C2 edit of Talking Head’s “Once in a lifetime” on the first Specimen concedes eventually and drops in the chorus, just after everyone has been teased enough, something Maelstrom could have looked to doing. Adding some extra percussion really wasn’t enough for me. Some things are just best left alone.
Damn Damn Damn Damn.
Has Carl Craig already done EVERY single track i’ve been planning to remake/re-edit??
I’m referring to the talking heads track you’ve mentioned. I have been working on re-editing/remaking this track for some time now and didn’t realise that Carl has done it.
ALSO i was planning to remake People make the world go around by the stylistics until one day whilst digging in spindizzy records i put on the new planet e record, flipped on to the kdj mix and a few bars in thought “where do i know those riffs from??” you win again Carl
On top of that i had been planning on re-editing congoman by the congos until one day whilst browsing the internet i saw a record called Congoman (C2 edits) and said DAMN he did it again
Not that i’m complaining mind, he’s “probably” done a WAY better job and i’m fairly sure i couldn’t jave matched amp fiddler’s rhodes solo or norma jean’s sax solo on people make the world go round
Maybe all i have to do is think about something and i will find a carl craig edit
hhhmmmm….
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pipecock reply on June 22, 2008 8:01 pm:
that would be a dope talent to have!
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@ Dean, you should track down that C2 edit of Talking Heads. It’s superb!
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dean reply on June 22, 2008 8:51 pm:
I’m all over it boyee
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i have to say, the nonsense reguarding Maelstrom on DJHistory about his Miura edit was hilarious. his post about it got a response from Darshan of Metro Area which was pretty funny. i have to admit i jumped in on Maelstrom’s side even though i thought his edit was ridiculously unnecessary.
i have been buying less edits recently, for no real good reason either. we got a couple decent things through at 720 but none caught my attention enough to warrant picking up.
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I think there’s been a bit of edit overkill, it’s obviously a lot easier to do an edit these days, but a lot of them don’t seem to amount to much more than a bootleg with extended intro and break. I guess, as with anything, it’s just a matter of filtering out the crap, but you’ll need an industrial standard filter! There’s certainly been a resurgence in disco in recent years, but without much original disco being made, people are putting out edits of older and often obscure stuff to feed demand.
I loved the Terje edit of Chic with a nod to Moodymann yet keeping more of the feel of the original. Rahaan’s edits are pretty good too.
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I love the emphasis on the bass that CC brings to the Talking Heads edit, simple yet brilliant.
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dean reply on June 23, 2008 3:53 pm:
“simple yet brilliant”
That’s a beautiful thing that could be used to describe a lot of what Carl does. The most complex and rewarding sounds are often ones that seem so perfectly simple. A lot of Carl’s stuff just seems so effortless, so subtle but it takes serious talent to make something sound simple. You could also look at Basic Channel or Rob Hood as other examples of making music which uses subtlety as an exact impactive force.
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dean reply on June 23, 2008 3:59 pm:
and also this charcteristic is something that the copycat punks sinply can’t recreate. They might have software which emulates the sound perfectly, super-powerful sequencers with 100’s of channels and millions of effects but (most of em) still can’t make a simple beautiful groove like C2/BC/hood etc
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Mark E.’s edits are always worth checking out … always inventive and radically different to the original …. why else bother? (for those that commercially release them anyway)
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