Tag: smoke and mirrors

Sterling Void and remix version 4258 of “It’s Alright”

It’s been a while since we had a post about Sterling Void, hasn’t it? They practically write themselves! So let’s see what he’s been up to.

As I’ve commented before, Sterling Covid, whose depressing second wave is now underway after the first took 32 years to quell, reads this blog. He used to read my Facebook page in the days before the algorithm decided to strangle my reach, and he visits here too.

I’ve written a few times before about the increasing number of old tracks being remixed and the problems it’s posing for producers with newer records. Mr Simon Dunmore has noticed this trend himself lately.

As an aside, I wonder what Mr Dunmore would think of the fact Void once pretended he had a track signed to his label?

Anyway, Sterling Void is never a man to miss an opportunity to make his next $24, and he noticed the trend that people like remixes of older records. And an artist with a number of records in his archive, he can certainly do that.

Hence why I saw this.

That’s another one to add to the 4257 remixes of this that already exist. I’ve blanked the name of the person who posted this, mostly to spare their blushes as yet another victim of Void, but I can assure you this won’t see the light of day.

Well, not without several payments of $24 to the man himself, anyway…

The many faces of Derrick May

Update on 18/03/2021: I’ve had to make a few changes to this post as some of the information was inaccurate. Firstly, Derrick May is not 6ft 3in as previously claimed. And secondly, the photograph with the woman having her face held by May has been removed – it has since become apparent that she had no issues with this behaviour. Apologies for these errors.

Last Thursday, I posted a story about Derrick May not being the sort of person who was good at keeping a promise. Detractors on social media techno groups – often frequented by many of the big names in the scene – claimed this showed I was “desperate” and “scraping the barrel”.

Obviously, I disagree. I think it’s just yet another episode of May showing that he is unworthy and cannot be trusted. And believe me, I have a few more posts written up based on things he’s said in the past while being interviewed. All part of a pattern!

Speaking of patterns, another one has been noticed whilst looking into him. He seems to like invading people’s personal space. Maybe it’s because we’re living through an era of social distancing that I’ve noticed this more quickly, but he does it in interviews and, it seems, with women in audiences too.

As an aside, whenever you search the term “face grabbing” in Google, you’re presented with several articles that are about domestic violence. This sentence is presented without further comment…

So why do some people get so incredibly close? Psychology Today helpfully elaborates.

“Tall people use the perception of their larger size to feel that they dominate over people who are smaller and shorter than they are. They’ll invade your space, this finding suggests, because they feel they deserve to take up more room than you do.”

Whilst I haven’t been able to establish exactly how tall May is, it seems entirely plausible to me that he believes he can use his stature – or even possible lack of it – to impress, or in some cases, intimidate.

And it’s not just women who he uses this tactic with. Look at this photo where he employs the same problematic manoeuvre – only this time with a man.

Incidentally, as a final thought, what is Carl Craig doing in the background in this picture? Was he aware of what was happening here? And just why is he so defensive when it comes to Derrick May?

Has Sterling Void sued me yet? P.S. The answer is no

Naysayers out tell me to stop writing about Sterling Void. It’s “boring”, they say. He’s “yesterday’s news”, said another one. And yet every time I write about him, my readership soars. Care to explain that one?

Anyway, in October last year, Mr Void sent me a legal threat – well, what he thought was a legal threat anyway. The exchange is published in full below.

A few people reminded me of this lately and asked me if any legal proceedings are under way. The answer is a categorical no. I shall leave the final word to Paris Brightledge, who said this at the time.

Nothing to add here!

Sterling Void don’t wanna go putting this out!

It’s been a few weeks now since I mentioned anything about Sterling Covid, whose depressing second wave is now underway after his first 32 year wave was brought crashing down. And I do know that Duane himself reads this site, so this one’s for you, Mr Pelt!

I see that Sterling is currently working on a new version of “Don’t Wanna Go”. The original release came out in 1991 with mixes by Mike Dunn and Tyree Cooper – although no original version by Mr Void was ever released.

Expect this one to end up in exactly the same place all his other reworks have ended up – in a store that’s nowhere near anyone.

Is it an official remix? A quick guide

Further to my post on Friday about the extra enormous remix package and the revelation that Scott Diaz didn’t actually do a remix of this, I thought I should provide some insight into a certain question. Namely, when is a remix not an official remix?

First thing’s first. If a record label has given a proper release to a remix, it’s official at that point. It might not have started life that way – both of my remixes for Bassline Records started out life as bootlegs, for example – but the very act of a record label releasing it makes if official.

This is when things start to get a little murky. A lot of artists don’t actually have any say in when their records get remixed. It’s often in their contracts that the label owns the master – and ownership of the master means the right to commission remixes. Unless there’s a specific clause in a contract that says the artist must be consulted first, they don’t have to be. It’s as simple as that.

This means that the artist doesn’t always approve of remixes that appear. This is a hypothetical for me, as discussions have always taken place before anything has been commissioned. Maybe that’s just because I’m lucky to have good relationships with the labels I work with – or maybe because they know I’m a pain in the arse when I don’t like something. Who knows?

A sure-fire way to know an artist hasn’t approved a remix is to look at their social media. They won’t be talking about it. They’ll make no reference to it at all. It will be as if it doesn’t exist. This means one of three things;

  1. The artist was not involved in commissioning and therefore feels no need to say anything. It’s not unknown for producers to only find out about remixes when they appear on preorder.
  2. The artists does not actually like the remix commissioned.
  3. Both of the above.

I hope this guide has been helpful.

A positively glaring flaw in this plan!

I’ve been thinking about this one since Prime Minister Boris Johnson mentioned it on Monday. He claimed that the way to get nightclubs open again was to use lateral flow tests.

You can read about these elsewhere, but the gist of it would be that you arrive at the club and do a test. You would have your results in 15 minutes, and assuming your result is negative, you would then be granted entry. Sounds straightforward enough, no?

So what happens if the test comes back as positive? Obviously they would be denied entry, but how would you get them back home? The last time I checked, you can’t exactly bundle Covid positive people into the back of a taxi, can you? And what happens to anyone they arrived with – do they get refused entry and told to go home and self isolate for 10 days, as per government guidance?

Do people in the queue have to practice social distancing? Where are venues supposed to keep you during that 15 minute waiting time for your result? Who will actually carry out the test – the clubbers or the staff? Who has to pay for the tests and will clubbers have it added to the price of their ticket?

What happens if the result comes back as inconclusive? What happens if someone refuses to do the test – how will they be removed, knowing that they might be Covid positive?

And this is before you even get into questions about how accurate the lateral flow test actually is.

Why do I get the distinct feeling that, not for the first time, Boris Johnson is talking out of his defecatory orifice?