DJ Alex Corton – Good Looking Records

Good Looking Records

Pariah / Nu Moon – Studio – X2 X2DB (Part 3/3) 

2004

Our final record in the trio of vinyl releases in this X2 series has a couple of remixes on it that you will find on CD2. 

     Let’s jump in to this! 

   Artificial Intelligence are London based musicians, Zola Warner and Glenn Herweijer. With releases on Dispatch, V, Metalheadz, Exit, and Shogun to name a few labels they have released on, the duo have been pushing their music out for the last 20+ years. They take on the remix duties here, for Pariah’s track ‘Angel Falls’. While we do not have the original track on vinyl, the CD has it as track 7. 

   This is one fine piece of music, that shows the level of thought that goes into the work. They twist the bassline into their own honorable nod to Pariah, and you can glimpse those Pariah sounds throughout the track. You can definitely find room for this in a good liquid set and set off a crowd. It’s a shame it’s not a little bit longer in fact. Then again, this was heading into our future as a general rule wasn’t it? ‘Angel Falls (Artificial Intelligence remix)’ works really well. Well worth revisiting again if you’ve not heard it in a while. 

   The one tune left that I have to sneak in from the CD, is by a guy called Cubix. This is the only time I’ve heard of this artist so let me know if you anyone has anything more about him. I know his name is J Lloyd (according to Discogs), but as to any more info, the wall is hit. The track here is called ‘Thoughts’. This is one of the weaker tracks on CD 1, and while it has some nice sections such as the hard snare, the vocal sample and the wail, there’s an off center desire to keep this one in your memory banks. ‘Thoughts’ does lack a little something. 

   Finally, we have a remix of Nu Moon’s ‘Too Right’ by one of the most established and concrete junglists of our times. Andy Wright is Drumsound who became part of the duo mixing this track, but it’s Simon Bassline Smith who holds the key in here, as it’s his thoroughbred of 34 years in production that lights a very bright light. The Absolute 2 label founder, is one of the most important figures in the drum and bass world in my view, based on the music that passed through that label alone. His history is one mighty pillar of our world. 

   The remix of ‘To Right’ from Nu Moon, was a mighty tall order to take on, and to be honest, it comes reasonably close to honoring the original. However, there is a splash of the flight path that lay ahead and I get a glimpse of a world that doesn’t quite connect as much as a lot of the remixes on here. It kicks off with a rolling Amen break that is the foundation for the track and provides the engine. The bass adds a rawness that I do like too, keeping it old school. The first breakdown reels in pads, the piano from the original, and moves down the octaves for a subtle hook. The amens rejoin and that really highlights the track. It’s very different from all the other tracks on this Studio X-2 LP. It’s not really a comparison to the original, so in that frame of mind, it does enough to kick off on a dance floor. 

  There is one more remix that is on the CD and not vinyl. It’s Danny C’s remix of Alex DB’s, ‘Aurora Boreal’. It’s not a patch on the original though. More crunchy breaks on it, but the mellow and barbel hook catch is not really there for me. 

   That’s the ending of this Studio X series. Tomorrow we hit our penultimate review on the Good Looking Records label. I’m sure some of you will be glad of a fresh label to move to, and the blog will halt until I get to Looking Good Records (so my workload will drop a bit…at last). Tomorrow it’s another very special LP.