Guaranteed to chase any Monday blues away…. Egoless has delivered a game-changing twist on one of dubstep’s most iconic, influential tracks to date: Benga & Coki – Night.
Released late 2007, Night was one of the first dubstep tracks to enjoy daytime radio exposure and remained in the UK dance chart top five for over half a year. Its sliding riff is one of the most iconic in the genre and officially it’s been remixed by Zinc, Shy FX’s Digital Soundboy crew, Rinse FM founder and UKG don Geeneus. Unofficially it’s been remixed/edited by legions of bass fans. But few (if any) of them have truly smashed it and taken the track to new pastures – while keeping fully in check with its roots – until now.
Behold, this switch-flipping twist by Egoless.
https://soundcloud.com/egoless/benga-coki-night-egoless-version
Anyone can turbo charge a classic with new beats for cheap attention / vanity. But remixing a classic, taking it to completely new pastures, actually developing its story within context and paying full respect is a whole other level. We reckon Zagreb’s roots/bass fusionist Egoless smashed this out of the park.
If you’ve been following him or checked him play, it shouldn’t come as such a huge surprise… His sets are a lesson in 50 years of roots / soundsystem music, laced with stacks of his own edits and versions. In his own words: “It’s all about combining past with the present for me but keeping both sides equally and properly represented in every way.”
Amen.
We sent him a few questions to find out more. He answered them while in the thick of another epic Outlook Festival this weekend. The massive champ.
Where did the inspiration for this particular roots flip come from?
The original in my personal opinion has arguably one of the biggest hooks in the genre. It’s an amazing tune and one of those that stuck with you for a long time after you hear it, undeniably a classic!
So one day I just got the weird idea to transform the hook melody into major chord brass version. It was a crazy idea but I just had to do it. In the start it wasn’t working, so I left the idea aside for a while, then one day it all just came together and I recorded everything in a couple of hours.
Been trying to make Benga & Coki – Night ska version… Will succeed, one day 😀
— Egoless (@EgolessMusic) June 23, 2016
Did you get a band in to play it or did you play the instruments yourself?
I played most of it myself and mixed / mastered it in my studio.
What was the reaction the first time you dropped it?
I played it at System in London as a closing tune of my set and the reaction was mad. Confusion mixed with surprise and joy, but you just can’t stop moving and dancing to the groove so it was very nice. It’s good to surprise people from time to time.
Have Benga and Coki blessed this?
I’ll make sure it reaches them. Hope they don’t get mad at me 🙂 Touching / reworking classic tunes can be a bit tricky sometimes, but my intentions behind this were purely creative. Some people may think it’s jokes, but for me it’s most definitely not. The idea was completely insane, and I just had to take that challenge of transforming a dubstep classic into ultimate feel good ska anthem that’s gonna put an instant smile on your face. I’m glad the reaction from people was really nice but I didn’t expect the magnitude of it in such a quick time. I don’t expect them to like the version, but I am hoping for them to understand the idea behind this, and of course I have nothing but respect for both of them.
Respect for Egoless: Soundcloud / Facebook / Twitter
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