lundi 27 décembre 2010

Loleatta Holloway - Mama Don’t, Papa Won’t (1992)

Salsoul may have been an excellent disco label, but as soon as the genre’s incredible popularity died out, Salsoul suffered accordingly. The remix collections brought out in the early nineties were an obvious late attempt to milk the catalogue to the max (work subsequently continued by Suss'd), but luckily the material was rich - often with great orchestration and live percussion - and the choice of remixers was inspired. People like Masters At Work, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, Clivilles & Cole and David Morales did exceptional work on tracks that they very obviously loved. Some mixes arguably outdid the originals.

Inexplicably named Tabasko for the UK market (it was 'Synergy' in the US), the remix album started off with Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley’s terrific mix of Loleatta Holloway’s “Mama Don’t, Papa Won’t”, a radically different take that nevertheless made great use of the original strings section and fit the song perfectly, giving it a whole new lease of life.

As well as being included on the compilation CDs, some tracks were released on CD-single, albeit in a rather roughshod manner; there was no front sleeve, artwork was uniformly terrible, tracklistings were often absent or didn’t reflect the actual contents of the CD…

Although I already had the Salsoul CD singles of some other tracks, I didn’t know that “MD,PW” had also been released as a single until I came across it on eBay. Apparently, despite these CDs being pretty hard to find when they were released, nobody else cares, as I was the only person to bid, and got the CD for next to nothing.

Anyway, the CD-single contained a Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley dub that I hadn’t heard before, and although it’s not radically different (as was often the case with his work), there were some sections that strayed from the vocal version, and I’d always wanted his mix to be longer, so… I decided to make my own version! The result gives the track more emphasis on the less vocal side and makes for a welcome surprise for anyone - like me - who knows it by heart now. I think of it as a slight extension, and the new splices sound natural, so I’m quite pleased with it. Have a listen below, and download it if you like…



I’d love to be able to direct you to a legal download site that allows you to get your hands on the Hurley remix and support the artist, but once again it’s unavailable on all the usual sites (unless you know otherwise). Sad.

It's also amusing to note that more time has now passed between the remix release and the present day than between the original disco release and the remix!

BONUS! I combined two of the MAW mixes of “Ten Percent” together to make an extra long mix too. Not rocket science, but I like the way it works. You can download that here.

5 commentaires:

Mark S a dit…

Jason, this is a great album. I got it a few months ago.

This Loleatta/Hurley remix is superb too. Thanks for posting your edit of Ten Percent, one of my fave mixes by MAW.

T. just T. a dit…

Jason, je pense que si cet album s'appelle 'Tabasko !', c'est parce que ce n'est tout simplement pas l'équivalent du 'Synergy', le tracklisting est radicalement différent. Au passage, son équivalent US serait plutôt 'Rhythm', la deuxième compilation US de remixes sur Saloul / Double J. Je l'ai reçu hier, 'Synergy' : médiocre. 'Tabasko !' est bien meilleur, et de loin.

T. just T. a dit…

btw, big shame that three tracks are edited like they were mere radio edits... and their full-lenght counterparts do not seem to be available anywhere. (got my CD last week, Sat'). I know they wouldn't fit in the CD format for running time reasons, then, better dropping one or two tracks rather than those lame 'shortcuts'.

Anonyme a dit…

I have this on vinyl tucked away in storage on the other side of the earth. I recall one side was the original mix and the other the Hurley mixes. Excellent edit as I too have always wanted an extended Hurley mix.
Thanks for sharing.

Jason Fist a dit…

Thanks for the kind words everyone!