This post is about a certain kind of tune that I've been getting quite into recently - modern House tracks that heavily sample the vocals from old tunes but in a new and original way, rather than just ripping out the lead vocal and sticking a new beat over it. It's been trendy over the last couple of years to replace the vocal downwards to make it suitable for contemporary deep house, and this technique is often used to awesome effect. Sometimes it's the whole vocal, sometimes just a snippet, and I’ve been actively seeking out songs like this recently.
A core principle of my DJing is attempting to link the past to the present - giving credit to the great music of yesterday whilst looking forward to today and tomorrow. Whilst I now play a lot of older stuff (like before I was born old!), and I don't have the money or the inclination to keep my collection bang up to date with all of the latest gems and future classics, I do like to try and keep at least a few toes closer to the present day, and having a few tracks like this alongside other up to date stuff helps me to do that whilst keeping the links to the past. These, and modern songs with an old school flavour, which are also in vogue at the moment... but those are for another time!
Anyway, below are a couple of tracks that demonstrate what I'm on about, along with the songs that they evolved from...
David Keno - Upside Down
It's pretty obvious where this one was lifted from, but it's a good example of the detuned vocal technique. Not quite enough Funk for my liking, but good all the same.
Sylvester - Mighty Real (Sixth Avenue Remake)
This one's an absolute belter, and a staple of my sets. Sylvester's usually falsetto voice is repitched to produce a haunting deep house track with added funky saxophone towards the middle too. An absolute winner, and one of my favourite tracks of the past year!
Coat Of Arms - Is This Something
A couple of years old, but another good example - just taking a small bit of the Faith Evans original and twisting it into something completely new and different.
Louie Fresco - New Hateration
On a similar tip to the one above, this one takes a fairly small portion of an old R&B tune and reworks it into a modern house track. I’ve only just downloaded this one, but chances are it’ll make an appearance in my next mix!
Navy Shade - Oh My Love
Special mention for this one even though it’s a bit different to the others as the vocal is kept at the original pitch. I mention it here because it’s got Luther’s voice a capella, which is really useful, and the original is one of the best songs ever recorded.
Do you know of any songs like this that I can add to my collection? Please leave me a comment if you do!
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