Jesus I hate December in the UK – waking in the dark, shivering in the shower, chipping ice off the windscreen, shivering like a bastard all day and coming home in the dark. But (people protest) it’s Christmas! Fuck Christmas! I want tropical heat and to be able to lounge around in boardies while sexy mamis mix cocktails. A man can dream. Actually, if he puts on Loopez‘s ‘Free Remixed’ LP – the dream is almost tangible. It’s Hiperbole Records again of course. They’ve invited a carnival of producers aboard (The Coconut Monkeyrocke, Pushin Wood, Daytoner, K.Sabroso,
Eze Lodeiro (aka Doctor Stereo), Kaleidoscope Jukebox, Jugoe, Cooptrol, Planet Monkey, Davtone, Androoval and Daniel Anselmi) to give Loopez’s mellow-stylin’ tropical breaks LP Free something of a rerub.
It’s every bit the chilled affair you’d expect shimmying through varying shades of electronica and retro breaks all with a Latin twist. A bit like the original really – and equally as good – not a quality all remix albums can lay claim to but it’s groovers Davtone, Daytoner, Pushin Wood and K. Sabroso who deliver the sexiest goods. K.Sabroso’s Jazzynificent Journey version of Las Cosas Simples, for example, is right up label boss David ‘Renegades Of Jazz’ Hanke’s alley. Daytoner comes correct with a seventies disco/ spy funk fusion version of Lost Tape 2 and Davtone goes atmospheric with a Start From Scratch refix that’s so laid back it’s too out of it to even roll its own spliff. Which leaves Pushin Wood who’s taken the best and banging-est track off the the original, Lost Tapes 1, and morphed it the other way into a prime piece of head-nod ripe for sound-tracking some sort of caper movie. And, actually, if I close my eyes, I can…just…see…thongs on the beaches of Monte Video at sunset…
(Out now on Hiperbole Records)