Kraftwerk-y, Aviador Dro-esque remix of Spanish indiepop band that I did sometime in 2003 (I think.) Better than I remembered it. Enjoy. 


La Monja Enana - Numeros (DJ Downfall Remix)

I trust the sight of...

Another work for Fortuna Pop, around 2011. I think Sean was pushing for a dance mix, whatever that means. He wanted Allo Darlin’ to be played on the radio. So did I. 

But the tempo was too high. Without a hideous amount of timestretching on an excellent Elizabeth vocal, it wasn’t gonna work to get it down to 120-130bom. You can usually get away with somewhere between a 10-20bpm change without it sounding artificial and stylised. Not 65. 

So this is somewhere between a dub record and a dubstep record, but not really either. I’m such a dilettante. I like a lot of it, but the big synth bassline is a bit clunky. It’s like a drunk, rude party guest, dominating everything and obscuring the more charming elements. Benga and Skream rested easy in their beds that year. 

Allo Darlin' - Dreaming (DJ Downfall Redub)

This one never came out. Back in 2007 I knew Get Cape's manager slightly, and he asked me to do a mix. Then I had to deal with his A&R department, and ended up down a classic major label dicking-about rabbit hole. "Oh, we'd like you to remix this one" Do some work on it, get six weeks silence in return. "Oh, sorry, we didn't mean that one, we meant *this* one. Oh, and we need it by Wednesday. Don't worry, we're ALMOST CERTAINLY going to pay you." 

Did they f**k. They never used it. They used a Metronomy one instead - which, to be fair, is very good. I just remember being deeply pissed off by the whole experience. 

Somehow - can't remember how - a CDR of it found its way to Eddy Temple-Morris at XFM, who played it and broadcast it as the 'F**k Atlantic Records, 'F**k 'Em Right In The Eye Mix' - you can see the tracklist here: http://unkle77.proboards.com/thread/2172/rich-file-remixes-remix-friday 

I'm pretty pleased with it still. I think it does the song justice, even if it is a bit undecided as to what it wants to be. Right at the end, I added some 'Ba, ba ba ba baas' from the other song I had the split tracks from. I wonder if anyone ever noticed. I have no idea if Get Cape fella ever heard it. He was a talented guy - it's a pity he was served by central casting music industry pricks. 

Get Cape Wear Cape Fly - I Spy (DJ Downfall Remix)

Remix I did in 2013 for this duo. One of many organised by WIAIWYA for this release. Pretty straight-up-and-down dance-pop version. 

This was way overdue by the time I started it, and I had to knuckle down for a couple of days and sprint through it. The vocal was already at the right tempo for that just-over-pace type track; when I eventually found the offbeat triplet chord figure I knew it was going to work. It took a while to get there, but once I had that... It’s a beautiful point in the process when that happens.  

I really like this one, it’s tight and radio-ready and focussed and danceable and cogent. Did no business at all, really. Didn't even get so much as an email from the band. That’s how it goes. 

I reckon remixing is often about trusting instinct. If you think you have a decent hand, play it and let the cards fall. You might get lucky, you might not. But you should play it as if it were a monster anyway. 

Victoria & Jacob - Cry Baby (DJ Downfall Remix)

"Admiral" John Jervis, CEO of WIAIWYA Records, asked me to do a Bond theme or song for his 2015 'A Girl And A Gun' project, which you can read about here: http://wiaiwya-agirlandagun.blogspot.co.uk/

I didn't want to do one of the all-time great Bond songs because I doubted I could do it justice without descending into parody. This seemed like a slightly forgotten gem - despite it being turned down by Johnny Mathis and Kate Bush, before Shirley Bassey got yet another phone call. It's not the greatest, but it's still damn  good. Also (like Alan Partridge), Roger Moore is definitely my favourite Bond. I love watching him creak around the sets. 

I wanted a slightly spooky, but elegant feel, maybe a bit Joe Meekish. There's a master reverb over everything to hint at that 30th St Studio sound. I'd wanted to work with Theoretical Girl (https://soundcloud.com/theoretical-girl) for some time, but the right opportunity never quite arose. So I was thrilled when she said yes, and what a job she did. Always ask. You never know what might happen. 

DJ Downfall Feat. Theoretical Girl - Moonraker

This was a commission from the Hangover Lounge, the fine, long-running Sunday social club in London. It was named the ‘Hangover Lounge’ because it was intended to be a place to absolve Saturday’s trangressions. The irony is, of course, that it has created many, many more hangovers that it has soothed. 

In 2013, during the club’s long run at the Lexington they asked me to do a remix for legendary West Coast noise-poppers Black Tambourine. It seemed in keeping to do something deep and rumbly and synthesizer-free. I had already done a dub mix for Help Stamp Out Loneliness (q.v.) but this time I decided to go full-on Scientist. 

If you haven’t heard any Scientist, you should. A Jamaican producer, protege of King Tubby and remixer of some genius, he did most of his best work in the early 80s. There are many great albums, of which my favourites are Dub In The Roots Tradition and Scientist Meets Pac-Man, stuffed through with warm, murky reggae versions, rattling Roland Space Echo and squirming filters, but (unlike a lot of dub) retaining a deep musicality and sense of joy. I tried to snatch at his coattails. 

I got given quite a few of the parts (stems), but I think I only used Pam Berry’s vocal in the end, and sent her into the Black Ark. The MusicMan bass came out, as did the Rickenbacker.  I think if I did it again I would bring the bass variation in earlier, add a bit more freak echo, and maybe some more guitar. 

They pressed this onto a picture disc in the shape of an archery target face. Bless. Sounded great off vinyl, too. It's been a while. 


Black Tambourine - I Want You Around (DJ Downfall Redub)

Help Stamp Out Loneliness. The greatest band from Manchester since Crispy Ambulance. Can’t remember how I ended up deciding it should be a dub mix, but I guess I did. 

Lucky really, because someone called Tall White Guy did a cracking dance mix at tempo. If I had ended up doing a crappier version in the same or similar genre, that would have sucked, hard. 

I’m really pleased with this. I’m really proud of it, and the work that I did. I like the arrangement (which I spent a long time on), and I like the flow, and the way it fits together. I like the Billy Joelish piano at the end. I like the beat juggling. I like my bass playing. I love Dee’s vocal. I like the shifts from broodiness and melancholy to passion. 

It wasn’t effortless, I remember. It took a long time to make it work. But I’ve probably listened to it more than any other mix I’ve done. 

Help Stamp Out Loneliness -  Pacific Trash Vortex (DJ Downfall Thermohaline Mix)

A Ronseal remix for the tiny ball of pop genius that is Cannonball Jane. Not much to say about this one except that I shared some honours with Ad Rock of the Beastie Boys, who also did a remix. Fuckin’ AD ROCK, MAN!  He did a mix of this too! He stared at the waveforms and went through some of the same thought processes… AS ME! He had doubts! He probably changed his mind! He delivered it late! Yay! 

I tried to make it a hit in the vein of Fatboy Slim or Fantastic Plastic Machine or something. I failed. But I tried. 


Cannonball Jane - Take It To Fantastic (Downfall Smash Hit Radio Edit)

Stroke were a band from Manchester who signed to XL Records around the turn of the 21st century.  If only they’d added an ’S’ to their name. Would have made all the difference

This was done in 1999, in the era before I had a home studio of any kind. I paid Mr. Ben Pitt to use his extensive audio and engineering knowledge in his extensive front-room studio on the my-God-is-it-still-named-that Black Boy Lane in Tottenham. 

The tapes turned up, and we both looked at them blankly. Turns out the masters were recorded on Otari RADAR, a popular digital multitrack of the 90s. Several hours and a few phone calls later, one of these monster machines turned up in a huge flightcase, and we somehow worked out how to strip-mine the audio off it. Then another van came back and picked it up. The 90s, eh? There was money for this sort of thing then. 

I don’t remember a lot about the process or my thoughts behind it, except that it was a lot more sample rather than synth heavy.  Ben had a lot to do with it. The very end of this mix has a secret-sauce choppy effect on the lead vocal that is still awesome and was achieved entirely with MIDI and Ben’s work with a E-Mu sampler. I have no idea what he did, then or now Thanks, Ben.

I remember the XL people saying 'the lead singer of Stroke wants to work with you, can we set up a meeting?', which didn't happen, but I guess they liked it. Job done. 

Stroke - I Wish I Had (DJ Downfall Mix)

Sean Price aka “El Presidente" ran Fortuna Pop records for a couple of decades with a gentle, loving, sweet nature masked by Olympic-class acerbity. I can’t help but like a man whose reputation for curmudgeonliness stretches right round the world, even if we haven’t always got on.  

He worked with the Pains on their first album before things turned sour and they buggered off to minor fame and unknown fortune elsewhere. I got asked to mix this in 2009. 

I believe The Pains recorded everything pretty much themselves, and the lead vocal I got sent was awful - badly edited, riddled with digital artifacts, and Autotuned to buggery. Something like that can’t really be the sonic focus of the track (as it can if it was well recorded - see Allo Darlin (qv). It needed something loud and fast propping it up.

I’ve been a fan of Depeche Mode’s debut Speak And Spell album for a couple of decades, at least. I can still remember exactly where I was when I heard Just Can’t Get Enough for the first time. I even sampled the little ‘tick’ electro-percussion sound on this remix off the 12” mix of it, because I’m a cheeky bastard. It was fun to do a homage that was quite that shameless. 

It's called the Sprechenbann mix, because that was a pseudo-German word supposed to mean Speak & Spell. It doesn't mean anything. There is an advantage to having a nonce word in your track title though - it's easy to find all the mentions of it on the interweb. 

If I did it again, I’d stick another synth line or two over the verses, and tick the tempo up by about 5pm. I’m really pleased with the late entry synth melody just before the last chorus. That’s a good bit. I like that bit when it happens. 

The best bit of this was playing it for the first time to Kip, chief Pain, at the Hangover Lounge when he was over to tour. At the end, he ripped off the headphones and high-fived me. I think he used the ‘bro’ word.  The little things that remind you why you bother.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Falling Over (DJ Downfall Sprechenbann Mix)

The first one I ever made, when DJ Downfall was barely two 7” singles old, recorded with the assistance of Mr. Ben Pitt. I don’t really remember anything about it at all. Christopher Just was a German DJ who had a bouncy robo-pop style not dissimilar from my own at the time. Also remixed by Cornershop (as Clinton Titestick) and Fatboy Slim, who was still a dance music God at the time. It was pretty exciting to be on a 12" with Fatboy Slim. 

Christopher Just - I'm A Disco Dancer (DJ Downfall Remix)

They took the sex out... I put it back in. 

Shrag - Talk To The Left (DJ Downfall Remix)

DJ Downfall -  200,000 Hours (demo)

DJ Downfall - (Make Me Feel) Like A Man

Like Xenomania if they put Alan Braxe in charge. 

Pipettes - Stop The Music (DJ Downfall Radio Edit)

DJ Downfall - Ladies

DJ Downfall - Black Pants

DJ Downfall - Seven Dials

Kenickie -  I Would Fix You (DJ Downfall Mix)

Kenickie -  I Would Fix You (Party Acapella)

B-side of Rex Records single "The Money & The Bass". Lost for a while. Uploaded by special request.
It's all yours. xx

DJ Downfall - The Money & The Damage Done

Heavy-ass, sample-ridden extended funk workout, originally released on Rex Records. Now remastered and sounding like never before. Spot the Rush samples. Two of them at least. And something off a Young MC video. I mean, who knows what was going on here. It was twenty years ago M8.

The Money & The Bass (12" version)

The first of several collaborations with Gene Serene, several of which ended up on the first two DJ Downfall albums. BOOM. I don't remember a lot about making this (twenty years ago M8) but it slaps now. Remastered by me in 2020.

Gene Serene - Give It To Me (DJ Downfall Remix)

This came out in 2005. Band were a multi-national crew based in NYC IIRC. Never heard of them since, after I briefly met them on tour when they played at the Water Rats in London. Looking around they kept going for a while after that. I don't remember anything about this; how I got commissioned for it, how I made it, what on. Nothing. And my memory isn't that terrible. Just a weird black hole. Listening again now it's held up better than I remembered it. Enjoy.

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