Fifty Five Minute Edit Mix

There have been a lot of really good edits out in the wild over the last few years and the thought of slinging a bunch of them together into a Sunday mix became irresistible. In the fifty five minutes below you'll find various artists from the last sixty years of popular culture re- edited and rejigged into new shapes including Gil Scott Heron, Gordon Lightfoot, The Residents, Voice Of Africa, Monsoon, Siouxsie and The Banshees and Les Negresses Vertes. This mix is only part of the story- volume 2 (and maybe 3) will follow shortly. 

Fifty Five Minute Edit Mix

• Western Revolution
• Totem Edits 12- Feel
• Resident Rockers
• Totem Edits 03- Hoomba
• Lonely
• Trading Places (6PM)
• Arabian Knights
• Totem Edits 14- Zombi

Western Revolution was  released on 12" vinyl only, part of Coyote's Magic Wand Special Editions Volume 2, along with Lonely and two other edits (Love Home and Luca). Western Revolution is a live sounding, laid back groove with the unmistakeable voice of Gil Scott Heron advising us about the results of the revolution and theta there will be 'no re- run, brothers and sisters, the revolution will be live'. Lonely picks up where Monsoon's 1981 single Ever So Lonely left off and extends it out.

Totem Edits have become fairly essential recently, a page at Bandcamp for the edit work of Leo Zero and Justin Deighton (with plenty of input from Sean Johnston). One to watch. I posted Feel fairly recently, lovely drawn out funky folk built around a 1967 Gordon Lightfoot song, The Way  Feel. Totem Edit 03 has Voice Of Africa's 1990 Balearic beat smash Hoomba Hoomba close to its core. Totem Edits 14 is one of my favourite recent edits from the pair, a wonderfully absorbing version of Les Negresses Vertes' 1989 French punk/ folk/ Balearic song Zobi La Mouche. 

Resident Rockers is part of a two track EP on the recently reinvigorated Eclectics label, San Francisco avant garde/ art punk rockers/ giant eyeball headgear wearers The Residents bent into new shapes by someone very familiar to this blog. Find Eclectics and the EP here. 

Jezebell are masters of the edit, a sample forming the basis of a completely new track, something old being reworked into something new. Trading Places was a six track pair of EPs from 2023, split into two parts, daytime and nighttime versions. In the 6PM take Siouxsie Sioux's Peek- A- Boo gets reworked and taken for a spin round the floor. 

In 2015 Mojo Filter, an edit veteran, took The Banshees 1981 single Arabian Knights, Siouxsie's post punk psychedelia re- jigged into new shapes. Going from Peek- A- Boo to Arabian Knights seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. 

Monday's Long Song

Over at the Totem Bandcamp page you can find some very tasty Totem Edits including the most recent one, Totem Edit 14 Zombi. Dense and deep, swirling, hypnotic, rhythmic and multi- layered, dubbed out, chanted vocals, a certain Gallic flair. It's a beauty. 

Totem Projects is a repository for edits and other stuff by Leo Zero and Justin Deighton, a formidable team. Previous Totem edits include a recent one by Hardway Bros, Cali, and from near the start Totem Edit 03 Hoomba (a version of  the 1990 classic Hoomba Hoomba by Voice Of Africa) among the treasure trove. All available for free/ pay what you want. What's not to like?

Totem Edit 4 Zombi is a version of the song by Les Negresses Verte's Zobi La Mouche, a 1988 single and also on the 1989 album Mlah. Les Negresses Verte's fusion of French chanson, folk and world music made them a dead cert for the more broad minded clubs of the late 80s, from the Mediterranean to northern Britain. In fact, Leo Zero said of the edit, that he had one of the great dancefloor moments of his life when he walked into Ku in Ibiza in the summer of '89 to hear Mr Weatherall playing Zobi La Mouche. 

Zobi La Mouche (Single Mix)

This version, remixed by William Orbit, was often the one to reach for, the song retained with the exact amount of late 80s acid house brought in to raise the roof. The acidic squiggle breakdown in the middle section especially. 

Zobi La Mouche (William Orbit Remix)

Zobi La Mouche

This song came my way recently on social media, one I'd long forgotten about, and was surprised I'd never posted before- in fact I've not posted anything by the band before. Les Negresses Vertes were a Parisian group who formed in 1987, a bunch of friends fired up by punk and a musical stew of influences that used to be called World Music. Accordion and acoustic guitars, brass, percussion, various members singing vocals, an upbeat busking style, bags of energy and very much their own thing. In 1988 they released an album called Mlah which was well received and which I had a copy of on cassette. Later on, in 1993, a collection of remixes was released, which is where they crossed back into my life and record collection, an album including remixes by Massive Attack, Gang Starr and Norman Cook and this one by William Orbit. If truth be told, the William Orbit one doesn't quite do what I thought it might at the time, no liquid, skyscraping, electronic journey into the cosmos, but it has definite off kilter charm, some very persuasive rhythms, buckets of joie de vivre and is, dare I say it, quite Balearic.

Zobi La Mouche (William Orbit Remix)