Early remix records

[babycart]

I was listening to the Morricone/Chico Buarque Fistful of Samba lp last night and it occurred to me that it´s basically a remix lp, with Morricone adding his own unique touches to original songs performed by Buarque.

Are there any other early examples of this? - I´m thinking of an invited musician or producer radically reworking original material as part of a project, rather than alternative studio cuts/edits. It´s obviously been prevalent in Jamaica since the 60s, but elsewhere?

[Sonovox]

Harry Nilsson's "Aerial Pandemonium Ballet" from 1971 reworked songs from his first two albums ("Pandemonium Shadow Show" and "Aerial Ballet") with speeding up / slowing down / new vocal tracks / different mixes. So, not quite an invited producer, but in the same vein.

[LDJB]

Pretty sure Baby Cortez plays over the Isley's backing tracks in this.

http://www.discogs.com/Baby-Cortez-T.../master/632731

Ive not pulled it off the shelf in a while.

[chimptown]

infinity by coltrane.

master musicians of joujouka by brian jones?

[Boi Bach o Bethel]

Lionel Hampton Lps on Brunswick werebasicly him playing over pre existing tracks recorded by Lee Moses, Chee lites ect

[Expiry2011]

Animated Egg
Radical re workings of tracks recorded by The Id

101 Strings - Astro Sounds
Radical reworking of tracks record d the the Id

[bradx]

NEU! 2 is a bit nuts / 'reworking' tracks by speeding them up and putting a finger on the capstan.

[giantchicken]

NEU! 2 is a bit nuts / 'reworking' tracks by speeding them up and putting a finger on the capstan.

Yes, but it would be stretching it a bit to say that these were 'remixed' - it was simply that they'd run out of money halfway through recording the album and given that their first album had barely sold any copies at all, the record company were understandably loathe to bankroll them any further. Since the only other recording they'd done since their debut was the 'Neuschnee/Super' 45, the album was completed with these played at various speeds!

There are numerous examples of different releases using the same backing tracks ('Museum' by Donovan/Hermans Hermits, for example) but these don't really fit the bill either. What Babycart asked for was examples of someone other than the artist being 'invited' to manipulate the sounds. While it seems likely that reggae 'versions' were the first to exploit this (I wish I had the knowledge to confirm this!), I would think disco is the next most likely genre.

To this end, I was about to suggest the 'Savarese' remix of Chic's 'Dance, Dance, Dance' until I looked into it and discovered that although the celebrated New York DJ Tom Savarese claims he did do a remix, problems with tape transfer at different record companies meant that the mix finally issued as the 'Savarese Remix' was just an extended album mix, untouched by the hand of the man himself - but Chic thought having his name on it would help to sell more records anyway!

Extending an existing tune was already an established practice. There are many apocryphal tales of DJ Kool Herc and others using 2 copies of the same record to 'extend' tunes at block parties from as early as 1975, but the earliest released example I can find in my own collection is The Undisputed Truth's 'You + Me = Love' from 1976, where side A of a 33rpm 12" features the song plus an extended instrumental jam (clocking in at 11.10) with just the extended instrumental jam on the other side. Since Norman Whitfield's later days at Motown, his productions had been stretching further and further anyway, from his psychedelic soul sides for the Temptations through the extended album version of Eddie Kendricks' 'Keep On Truckin', so when he launched Whitfield Records, the length of the Undisputed Truth track probably wasn't much of a surprise in itself, although the 12" 33 was more of a novelty at the time.

Still however, this does not technically represent a 'remix' by an invited outsider, so I haven't answered the question either - but I'm thinking that Patrick Cowley, Frank Loverde and Francois Kevorkian are probably the sort of names to be looking into....

[Tom B]

To this end, I was about to suggest the 'Savarese' remix of Chic's 'Dance, Dance, Dance' until I looked into it and discovered that although the celebrated New York DJ Tom Savarese claims he did do a remix, problems with tape transfer at different record companies meant that the mix finally issued as the 'Savarese Remix' was just an extended album mix, untouched by the hand of the man himself - but Chic thought having his name on it would help to sell more records anyway!

Tom Moulton from 1974 maybe? I'm guessing Ladyboy Grimsby can help here... This from Wax Poetics:

In early 1974, in his quest to take songs beyond the de rigueur three-minute mark, Moulton went to see Mel Cheren at Scepter Records. Cheren, a habitué of both New York City’s hottest clubs and the Fire Island scene, was sympathetic. In his memoir, Cheren recalls playing Tom a previously released Scepter single by a singer named Don Downing called “Dream World.” He had an extra copy of the master tape and let Moulton bring it home to experiment. When Tom brought it back a few days later, Cheren writes, “We were amazed: a so-so record was suddenly snappy, upbeat, and ten times better.” But the biggest surprise, Cheren continues, was something “so radical I could hardly believe my ears.” Moulton had somehow stretched the original track, not even lasting three minutes, to almost double its time, and in the process debuted what would become known as the disco break.

In order to extend the short track, Moulton needed to transition back to the beginning of the song, to reprise the introduction. But the song modulated up, or rose to a higher key, halfway through. This is a common songwriter’s technique to generate energy, but it meant Moulton was faced with the unfortunate corollary, that modulating down would drain the momentum he was trying to build. Necessity gave birth to invention, as Moulton recalls thinking, “I guess I’ll have to start getting rid of everything musical. You see, when you drop that out, you’ve lost the key in your head. So the only thing I had left were the drums and the congas and the tambourine.” He continued to experiment. “I thought, ‘What I’ll do is raise the congas and the tambourines there, and let that go on for a few bars, then I’ll just bring in the bass, and then the piano, and then build it back up that way to extend it so it doesn’t sound boring.’ ” This method for getting around an awkward key change by stripping tracks down to their raw rhythm became one of the breakthrough innovations that changed the sound of dance music. DJs loved the freedom these percussion breaks gave them to mix and even extend songs themselves, and dancers were driven wild by the “tribal pounding that went on and on,” as Cheren described it, “perfect for dancing yourself into a trance.”

[giantchicken]

Tom Moulton from 1974 maybe?

Yes indeedy - that's another name I was thinking of - sounds perfectly plausible to me. Good work Mr B!

[giantchicken]

Yup, this seems pretty conclusive proof of a remix....

Pre-Moulton....

....and Post-Moulton...

....it's very well executed too! Plus, further circumstancial evidence from my own collection; Mr Downing's Scepter stablemates, BT Express, were obviously influenced by surrounding events - their 1974 single, (the very Norman Whitfield influenced) 'Do It ('Til You're Satisfied) is split between a Part 1 and much more instrumental/heavy breathing constituted Part 2 (still technically just an extended version), but 'Express' from 1975, which, although not credited to a named remixer, carries a identifiably different, longer 'Disco Mix' (with added guitar break) on the flip.

[Boi Bach o Bethel]

This is just a theory


A remix of Sort would be the tapes from the Unreleased Stormy Forest Album by Tom Brill being used as a backing track for The Man from Superfly album. Subsequently and this may wel lbe plausible that the remaining album were unused prerecorded sessions from Eugene McDaniels' MGM album Universal Jones (Its exactly the same session musicians)

[The Divine One]

I foolishly passed over a copy of The Outlaws album "Dream Of The West" because it didn't look too promising. But allegedly it has versions of tracks off "I Hear A New World"...

http://www.discogs.com/Outlaws-Dream...elease/3146017

[ladyboygrimsby]

Tom Moulton from 1974 maybe? I'm guessing Ladyboy Grimsby can help here... This from Wax Poetics:

In early 1974, in his quest to take songs beyond the de rigueur three-minute mark, Moulton went to see Mel Cheren at Scepter Records. Cheren, a habitué of both New York City’s hottest clubs and the Fire Island scene, was sympathetic. In his memoir, Cheren recalls playing Tom a previously released Scepter single by a singer named Don Downing called “Dream World.” He had an extra copy of the master tape and let Moulton bring it home to experiment. When Tom brought it back a few days later, Cheren writes, “We were amazed: a so-so record was suddenly snappy, upbeat, and ten times better.” But the biggest surprise, Cheren continues, was something “so radical I could hardly believe my ears.” Moulton had somehow stretched the original track, not even lasting three minutes, to almost double its time, and in the process debuted what would become known as the disco break.

In order to extend the short track, Moulton needed to transition back to the beginning of the song, to reprise the introduction. But the song modulated up, or rose to a higher key, halfway through. This is a common songwriter’s technique to generate energy, but it meant Moulton was faced with the unfortunate corollary, that modulating down would drain the momentum he was trying to build. Necessity gave birth to invention, as Moulton recalls thinking, “I guess I’ll have to start getting rid of everything musical. You see, when you drop that out, you’ve lost the key in your head. So the only thing I had left were the drums and the congas and the tambourine.” He continued to experiment. “I thought, ‘What I’ll do is raise the congas and the tambourines there, and let that go on for a few bars, then I’ll just bring in the bass, and then the piano, and then build it back up that way to extend it so it doesn’t sound boring.’ ” This method for getting around an awkward key change by stripping tracks down to their raw rhythm became one of the breakthrough innovations that changed the sound of dance music. DJs loved the freedom these percussion breaks gave them to mix and even extend songs themselves, and dancers were driven wild by the “tribal pounding that went on and on,” as Cheren described it, “perfect for dancing yourself into a trance.”

I think Babycart is pretty familiar with Tom Moulton and others and was probably searching for earlier, non-Jamaican versions of same, ie from the 60s or earlier.

[SirSlim]

The American version of "rebel rebel" blew my head off when I first heard it - a forerunner of the remix surely?