Let’s talk about Faithless. They created the since massively overplayed “Insomnia” back in 1994. Island Records were originally meant to release it, but they admitted several months after signing the contracts that they had absolutely no idea how they would promote it. So both sides walked away from the deal.
Faithless then opted to release it via band member Rollo’s own Cheeky Records. After its initial release date of 27th November 1995, the song started to build in popularity during the following year – which meant new remixes by DJ Quicksilver, Armand Van Helden, De Donatis and a few others. And the most popular Monster Mix has never been far away from a classics playlist since.
A few months ago, Ministry of Sound released two new remixes of the song by Maceo Plex – currently known as the idiot who likes throwing glass cups into the audiences who’ve paid to hear him play. They weren’t terrible, but they were nothing interesting or new either.
And now, Faithless have decided that cannibalising their own archive once more is worth it – by allowing David Guetta, the DJ who previously ended racism, to have a go at remixing “God Is A DJ”. Given Guetta’s high opinion of himself, plus no doubt a fat remix fee, I suspect the Frenchman found the temptation hard to resist.
Just about the only saving grace of this hideous insult to the original is the fact Guetta’s extended mix comes in at just 4 minutes and 16 seconds long. This compares to the over nine minutes for the Sharp Boys Lewd In London mix which accompanied the original release – and although it takes way too long to get going, it did at least try to do something different.
I dread to imagine how much money per minute they had to pay for this remix. If you ever wanted proof that the majors still have deep pockets when it suits them, look no further…