Earlier this month Rockwell released ‘LOW ART [Remixes]’ on Obsolete Medium. In honour of this, we asked the man himself to select his favourite remixes. Disclaimer: he told us it was very very hard to pick just ten!
Visages – Lunar Eclipse ft. Strategy [Alix Perez Remix]
I was a big fan of the original, and played it every set until I got my hands on the remix! The remix smoothed out the arrangement and made the drop section really exciting – leaving that silence with the vocal really accentuated the urgency of the track when the drums come back in!
Klinical – Around Me [Workforce Remix]
Another track where subtle touches to the arrangement, really help to give it impact on the dancefloor. A crunchy relick where the staccato rhythmic pattern causes carnage without resorting to cheap and distasteful gimmicks!
Konflict – Messiah [Noisia Remix]
I’m a big fan of this period of drum and bass where the darker side of things was starting to go to the next level, and artists like Noisia and Phace were really pushing production standards and sound design. I don’t really feel like they added much in terms of new content to the remix, and I think sometimes when you are dealing with such revered source material, its best to not change it too much and be faithful to the original. Using the high pass filter to heighten anticipation for the drop and all of the signature Noisia edits and touches brought it bang up-to-date, and when it strips back to just the beats and the bass, I just can’t get enough of it!
Kings of the Rollers – Shella ft. Chimpo [Halogenix Remix]
Everything about this is super crunchy and grungy. A super tasteful minimal jump up-ish remix, which really complimented the hugely underrated Chimpos’ playful wordplay.
Phace & Noisia – Micro Organism [Buunshin Remix]
I really love the original, which takes me back to an interesting time in drum and bass where everyone reigned in the loudness and aggression, and was making super minimal tracks. I like the way Buunshin kept the vibe of the original in the intro, but segued into contrasting contemporary territory with lots of white noise and crunch – crazy, but tasteful!
Absolute Zero & Subphonics – The Code [SKC Remix]
I mean, this is just lashing isn’t it.
Future Cut – 20/20 [Future Cut Remix]
One of my favourite drum and bass tracks ever – perfectly moody, interesting turnarounds, sci-fi FX – what’s not to love? Also, remixing yourself is quite an interesting proposition…
Wots My Code – Dubplate [Total Science Remix]
Again, one of my favourite drum and bass tracks ever, and probably the track that really pulled me into loving the genre as much as I do. The arrangement is perfect, and the drums have a really interesting texture and pace to them. Total Science actually sent me the stems to this years ago but the couple of times I’ve actually tried to have a look at it, nothing has even come close to this.
Moving Fusion – Atlantis [Bad Company Remix]
I think the arrangement is what gets me on this one – it just builds and builds and builds, in contrast to most, especially contemporary tracks, where all of the attention is on the drop. It conjures imagery of landing on a spaceship on a distant planet. I would remove that horn stab though!
Culture Shock – There for You [Breakage Remix]
One of the things that I’ve really liked about Breakage’s production over the years is his really tasteful yet sparse integration of musicality – it was all over his dubstep and it was really nice to see creep back in again with this remix for Culture Shock. The drums are very naughty as well – as you would expect from a Breakage production!
Rockwell’s next EP ‘LOW ART [Remixes]’ on Obsolete Medium is out now.
