Back in the early 2000s, UK garage entered an era where the sound became increasingly divisive. The scene itself was suffering due to a divide where some of the music was getting faster and faster, with more emphasis on hard basslines than quality vocals – and the whole genre was being punished as a result.

So during this period, one way of keeping the sales up – oh, for the days of vinyl! – was to include at least one or two remixes for the house DJs who normally wouldn’t go anywhere near UK garage. And it has to be said most of these remixes were crap – many garage tunes of the era simply didn’t work in a house context.

Either the remix had to increase the BPMs into territory where house DJs would complain it was too fast for them – even by the acerbic standards of the time – or you had to slow the vocal down substantially, potentially losing some of its character. Remixing one of these records really could be a poisoned chalice.

Yet occasionally, a good job was done. Such as on Audio Drive, a short lived project consisting of Belfast’s David James and Dutch producer Martijn Ten Velden. When asked to remix “Booo!” by Sticky and the ubiquitous Ms Dynamite, they kept the tougher basslines but otherwise inserted some stabs and drums more suited to house…

A respectable job…

By The Editor

Editor-in-chief at Amateur’s House.