Forty Five Minutes Of Hardway Bros Remixes

After A Love From Outer Space at the Golden Lion in Todmorden last night and yesterday's ALFOS post I thought Sean Johnston in Hardway Bros mode would be a good subject for a Sunday mix. I first attempted it weeks ago but for some reason lost the mix- the lost mix is always the best version. Then, trying again more recently, I tried to bite off more than I could chew, including remixes old and new and some of Hardway Bros original music, while trying to keep it around forty five minutes (much of Sean's music, remixes and original, comes in at ten minutes long). I went back to the drawing board, decided to only use remixes this time around and sling together a bag of cosmic chug, house/ disco/ dub and indie- dance- there's a transition in this which is a bit untidy but I've left it as it is. There are so many more remixes that could have been included here. Something to come back to at a future date. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Hardway Bros Remixes

• The Secret Soul Society x Hardway Bros: Yo We've Landed (Hardway Bros Remix Redux)
• Islandman: Godless Ceremony (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Marshall Watson and Cole Odin: Just A Daydream Away (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Out Cold: Lovin' Arms (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Peak High: Was That All It Was (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Aimes: A Star... In The Sky (Hardway Bros Remix)

The Secret Soul Society Yo We've Landed came out in 2021, one of many remixes Sean did that year, Secret Soul's Cal Gibson's head spinning psychedelia bent into disco- dub shapes. 

Islandman's Godless Ceremony came out earlier this year, psychedelic Turkish folk/ dance music turned into wobbly, chiming indie- dance. 

Marshall Watson and Cole Odin's Just A Daydream Away came out just a few weeks ago, another slice of indie- dance Hardway remix heaven. 

Out Cold's Lovin' Arms came out back in 2013. Out Cold is Simon Aldred who was also Cherry Ghost. When I posted this remix about a decade ago Sean saw the post and said he'd forgotten he'd even done the remix. Classic house sound and feel on this one. 

Peak High's cover of the Jean Carne's disco classic Was That All It Was came out at the tail end of last year and I played it and both of Sean's remixes to death including on a car journey at Christmas where my daughter Eliza said she'd heard it, all three versions, so much she never wanted to hear it again. 

Aimes' A Star... In The Sky was a 2020 release about which I know very little other than it came out on 12" and Sean's remix kicks like a mule- dark, spaced out cosmic techno. 

Was That All It Was?

You might think that by 20th December the musical year was pretty much done and dusted but then late on Sunday night Sean Johnston, fresh from a night DJing at ALFOS at Phonox in London, decided to drop two new Hardway Bros remixes onto the internet. Sean's remixes are of an artist called Peak High (who I really hope does live in the High Peak). Peak High (Jim McCall) sent his cover of Was That All It Was to Sean, who offered to remix it, and we should all be glad he did as it's an absolute beauty. 

Was That All It Was was originally a slice of 1979 disco/ soul by Jean Carne, one of those pieces of happy/ sad dance music, dancefloor gold but with lyrics filled with regret and and the sharp pain of tears- 'Was that all it was/ A way to pass the time/ A momentary thing/ Not worth remembering in the morning'. Jean's version is all her vocal, disco synth drums, strings and late 70s pow pows. 

Was That All It Was

It was covered by Kym Mazelle in 1989, a house update of disco a decade on. Peak High's version is at Bandcamp along with Sean's pair of Hardway Bros remixes, a pay what you want deal. Peak High's take on the song is chuggy house with a huge bassline, rattling 808, synth stabs and a wonderful vocal from Don Gomez.

Sean turned in two remixes, one a disco synth drum extravaganza with a throbbing Patrick Cowley- esque bassline, eight minutes of ecstatic abandon. The second, the Bleep Dub, sends the song via the Snake Pass to Sheffield in 1990, a Warp-ed/ bleep techno version that is nine and a half minutes of dark dancefloor delight. Both are great.