The help you through the sea of remixes coming out every week, here is a selection of the best mashups/blends/rerubs out there...
- Sam Cooke at Studio One
- Weed Connection "One Draw" remix
- Busy Signal - Bad Eeh
- Tupac and Alton - Nothin' like Rocksteady
Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston - It Takes Two
|
The latest Jr Blender production is an absolute killer. The ultra-catchy Marvin Gaye hit on top of an original, upbeat reggae riddim played by Jr himself works likes an absolute treat. This is by far the best remix of Summer 2006!!! Here samples on soundquake.
or the full tune on Jr Blender's myspace. |
Sam Cooke at Studio One - Vol. 2
Following the huge success and the Ebay craze from the first installment... Sam Cooke on studio one riddims is back... Another Beautiful collector's item is out there!!
The production is top notch, so there seems to be no doubt Sam Cooke did really session down on Brentford road alongside the Sound Dimensions...
On the A side, you have a - "Little Things you do". The backing track is the instrumental to Bob Andy's "Let them say". On the B side, "Teenage Sonata" takes on the John Holt's "Love I can feel" riddim, but the track is actually BB Seatons "proud as i am", which is not the original first version.
This record was pressed and numbered to 1111 copies, so better get your copy if you're serious about quality soul reggae collectors!!
We played Teenage Sonata on THIS SHOW, it's the second tune.
Augui, May 2006
Weed Connection "One Draw" remixes
Hot new remix just off the press... Based on the classic Love Joys's "One Draw" on Wackies... We have a really nice array of vocals put on there, on the Weed Connection label... Strictly ganja anthems from Wayne Marshall, Sizzla, Elephant Man, Bounty Killer, Jigsy King, Mr Vegas... they all bun fi real!!Listen to this show to hear ALL of them!!
Augui, May 2006
Busy Signal - Bad Eeh (busysignal.biz)
This sounds more like a cut-and-paste megamix, but it is done really well. The production follows the flow and snippets of big tunes are thrown-in as Busy namechecks them at lightening speed. Sizzla, Assassin, Sean Paul, and many more are thrown into the mix. Not the most danceable tune in the world, but definitely clever & innovative!In the same series (same "label"), you get a Biggie Smalls and a Tupac "collaboration". Busy definitely doesn't disappoints on these. Check this show to hear them (playlist).
Flex, May 2006
Tupac and Alton Ellis - Nothin' like Rocksteady - Flex
So Tupac never was shot dead. Producer Flex, one half of illustrious London DJ duo Augui and Flex of Soundclash.org, has created a wondrous marriage of Rocksteady, Alton Ellis' foundation tune for Treasure Isle, and dead hip hop icon Tupac Shakur's Nothing Like The Old School.The sweet rocksteady sound of the original gets additional weight when a hefty digital drum pattern kicks in and the rhythm is further hustled along by the dynamic onrush of Tupac's lyrics, releasing an urgency perhaps latent, like a genie in a lamp, within the original for nearly four decades. Alton Ellis' soulful vocal and the lazy Treasure Isle horn solo waft evocatively in and out of the mix. A joyous extended namecheck of such hip hop trailblazers as Grandmaster Flash and Eric B & Rakim, Tupac's lyrical tribute to the old school seems, courtesy of this production, not just a tribute to the heroes of rap but to the greats of Jamaican music and to Alton Ellis' sublime rocksteady classic in particular.
Indeed, so seamless is producer Flex' match between lyrics and original reggae sample, that Duke Reid's little studio above his Bond Street liquor store becomes a utopia beyond time and place where musical greats, dead or alive, make music together.
Reggae fans are used to the remix, the rhythm do-over, and the version excursion but over the last twelve months it's all been taken to another level. So not only is Tupac still alive but Sam Cooke too. He never got shot in that motel room. He's at Coxsone Dodd's Brentford Road studios singing his classic Love Me over the Studio One Party Time rhythm. And as everyone always knew, Elvis is not dead either. Earlier this year, he sung In The Ghetto over a deep dark rhythm with plenty of Bunny Lee style flying cymbals for the Rown Beet label, wittily entitling it Jolly Ghetto.
Anyone with a modicum of computer expertise can now, in effect, resurrect a dead star in their own bedroom. Dean Martin crooning over the Satta rhythm? Freddie Mercury on Real Rock? Marvin Gaye on Sleng Teng? Why not? Have no doubt, Tupac, Elvis, Sam Cooke & many other stars of yesteryear have only just started the second phase of their recording careers. But Flex' Nothin' Like Rocksteady will be a hard act to follow. The record can be accessed at FLEX home
by Geoff Parker, reggaezine.co.uk
