Décembre 2016

BEATPORT: https://www.beatport.com/release/avonmore-the-remix-album/1852292

Bryan Ferry’s most recent musical odyssey came in the form of 2014’s critically acclaimed
Avonmore album, now the LP gets some very special remix treatment by a connoisseur selection
of disco artists from around the globe. The celebrated and taste-making likes of Leo Zero, Ray Mang, Prins
Thomas, Justin Robertson, Leftside Wobble, Idjut Boys, Man Power and many more all lend their
well trained ears and serve up some sizzling new versions of the superb originals.

Bryan Ferry is one of the UK’s foremost singer songwriters, a pop artist and musician whose
appeal has spanned five decades. With his elegant virtuoso performances as the
front man Roxy Music, and his subsequent illustrious solo career Ferry has achieved numerous
accolades and has been a great source of influence and inspiration for
ensuing generations of musicians. As such, a project like this allows some of these established and rising talents the
unique opportunity to add their own spin to Ferry’s singular style.

A broad palette of sounds, scenes and genres are traversed along the course of this absorbing
collection. It kicks off in style with two different versions of ‘Loop Di Li’. Leo Zero’s take is sun-kissed and breezy, 
with trilling riffs and sweeping synths. UK disco don Ray Mang then offers a
more pumping, groove driven effort that wraps Ferry’s unique vocals up in neo-Balearic cool.
Next up, the marvellous ‘Midnight Train’ is offered as a late night and romantic affair by Johnson
Somerset, a cosmic chugger by Man Power and a characteristically left of centre house version
by the inimitable Idjut Boys, famed for being remix kings.

Fans of dubbed out and slo-motion disco will love the brilliant Beard of Concern mix of ‘Soldier of
Fortune,’ before five fascinating versions of ‘Driving Me Wild’ take in lush 80s nostalgia,
swaggering dub, mechanical psychedelic disco, horizontal grooves and elastic kosmiche from
Johnson Somerset, Leftside Wobble, Justin Roberton’s Deadstock 33s, Leo Zero and Ray Mang
respectively.

The latter half of the album finds nu-disco pioneer Prins Thomas masterfully flip the title track into
a broody affair with corrugated bass and tense, scintillating synth lines, whilst PBR Streetgang
work ‘One Night Stand’ into a deep and synthetic disco bomb that will have dance-floors in
raptures. Elsewhere, Idjut Boys, Ray Mang, Leo Zero, Johnson Somerset offer more expert reworks.
Ambient Pioneer Ulrich Schnauss has the coveted task of adapting ‘Johnny & Mary’, Ferry’s timeless collaboration with Norwegian man of the moment Todd Terje.
Hidden Orchestra layer grand instrumentals and sweeping strings into a dramatic and theatrical
remix of ‘Send in the Clowns.’ Leftside Wobble is then left to bring us back down to earth with an
intoxicating brew of molten synths, woozy chords and smeared pads that sooth mind, body and
soul.

The rich source material here, along with the wealth of stars chosen to remix it, all make for
another fascinating chapter in the life of one of the UK’s most cherished artists.

Décembre 2016

Laurence Bessard