Keith
'Hold That Gun e.p - The Remixes'
(Lucky001T)
Released:29.08.05
You
may have heard the original: Zane Lowe/NME/TuneTribe/Clare
Sturgess/John Kennedy, and even Radio
2's Janice Long, bless her, have
made it clear that they have…And now here's
the remixes! That's the usual strap-line when
it comes to hearing guitar bands have a fumble
in the 'dance music' jungle. With Keith it's different,
of course! Keith's bass master, John Waddington,
has long been a DJ who knows how to sort any "Bug
[s] In The Bassbin" & still flaunts his
dextrously technical technoid tendencies at Manchester's
"Big Hands", a venue surprisingly popular
with Manchester's musical community, and which
has seen limos pull up outside for trans-Atlantic
A&R men attempting to catch the heat on the
street.
Although
not featured on this release, the band themselves
have remixed "Faces" into crisp dubbed
out pop odyssey which will be featured on the
CD for The TDK Cross Central Festival where they appear on the bill (Saturday
Aug 27th) with club stalwarts such
as Jeff Mills, Francois Kervorkian &
Grace Jones, and alongside other groove
inflected acts such as Tom Vek &
Jamie Lidell. Alongside their recent
tag-team DJ efforts we can see clearly that
for Keith their music spectrum extends way beyond
current cool & classic indie icons. If you
come to Keith's house prepare for a collision
of music with Krautrock, Jazz, Afrobeat, Deep
House, Soul, Indie & Psychedelia on the
stereos, and always as if in-the-mix at a rave.
On
to the remixes themselves…well, just as
with the original ep release, there's a cool
range of quality interpretations.
Hold
That Gun -
'Ellis Mix' by James Ford (
aka 'Ellis Beverly Hills Mix)
This
was James Ford's first remix.
The original tempo of the track was 160bpm,
so too slow for drum n bass and too fast for
house. James has managed to slow the vocals
down adding a clarity and sheen to the mix without
losing the energy or attitude of the original.
It was important to maintain this attitude rather
than just fit a beat to the tune.
Initially
James thought his industrial drums and freestyle
editing of the track was too much, "I've over-Aphexed the tune,"
he said, but we disagreed. There's a great spontaneity
in this mix and James has retained the deep
atmospheric of the tune Eno style, whilst adding
a ruthless groove that makes 'Windowlicker' appear easy. The sound effects feel like they'd
give George Lucas a run for his money in a face-off
with Darth Vader, the Sith Lord or any of those
space-age despots.
Bled
a Rose -
'Matthew Herbert Mix' (
aka 'Herbert's Heavenly Mix)
When Lucky Number first met the
band they told us how much they liked the breadth
of Matthew Herbert's productions.
His classic 'The Audience' has been
featured in the band's live set on a number
of occasions and always gets well received in
Manchester, where the tune is a Unabombers'
Electric Chair classic.If
we were going to put out the band's first record
we had to make the effort to get Matthew on
board and in the mix. The
subtle textures and beauty of the track provided
great ammunition for his lush yet experimental
remix. Matthew makes maximum use of the lesser-used
thumb piano and uses a vast array of sounds
and effects to create a different but fitting
sound for the band.
Come
on Gilles Peterson, this is
the kind of 'Soul' music you
want from a guitar based band, isn't it?
Mona
Lisa's Child\-
'Ellis Acid Mix' by James Ford (Ellis Hot 'n' Spicy Acid Mix)
James'
second mix gave him the opportunity to wig-out
acid stylee using the key piano motif of the
original in a more upfront Chicago style. This isn't just acid house revivalism
though; James has used influences from different
era and genres to create a new electronic mix
of his own to stunning effect. We've
got the original's live bass, P-Funk synths
& beefy '80's drums battling it out on the
dance-floor, all in the space of 5 minutes!
Faces
- 'Music Concrete Remix' by Sound Architecture
Sound
Architecture did a great mix on Spektrum's 'Lychee Juice' earlier this year -
deep, sexy house music full of analogue sounds
that felt more like Funk than machine music.
Here
their engineer, Jim Whelan, adds a rich warm
treatment to Oli's vocal whilst keeping the
groove sparse and simple with enough wah-wah to get the hips wiggling!
All in all, we think you'd be
hard pushed to find a more exciting electronic
package all year and that's the beauty of Keith
- on top of their game whether it's their own
work or other artist's interpretations!
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