Release
V/A - Verve Remixed 4
Way back in 2002, Volume 2 of the Verve Remixed series had just come out, and save for Felix’s take on Nina Simone, it was a pretty tasteful LP which still enjoys DJ box placement from us at Niche. Volume 3 was very hit-and-miss, thanks to the executive producers taking on more of the big names rather than lesser known but more appropriate ones. Now with Volume 4, some three years later, they’ve applied the same formula to come up with disappointing results. Truth & Soul’s efforts are authentic and get things off to a great start, before a bunch of Mickey Mouse re-touches set in for pretty much the rest of the album. Kenny Dope gets it, adding a snappy drum break under James Brown’s There Was A Time whereas Pilooski’s booming kick-drum underneath Nina Simone’s Take Care Of Business gives it an unnecessary urgency. My feeling on the Diplo version of California Soul and 9th Wonder’s version of Everybody Loves The Sunshine is that they put their hands up to do it before realizing that it’s impossible to improve on perfection. The jury is still out on the former and I’ve been told Roy Ayers never recorded for Verve so perhaps they’re at the bottom of the barrel with their own catalogue now (or A&R ingenuity), which is a real worry. It’ll be interesting to see what you all think of the rest of the album when it’s released at the beginning of June. Hopefully we can all agree that The Cinematic Orchestra ‘collaborating’ with Ella Fitzgerald is pure magic.
