Eddy Says

Eddy Says: Cast your opinions into the fire

By | Published on Monday 29 March 2010

Eddy Temple Morris

That ‘Joy Of Compilations’ special that aired while I was in Andorra earlier in the month really got me thinking. Yes it was a gloriously random bit of radio programming, and it triggered some really nice messages from the extended Remix family, which ranged from “really interesting” to “radio gold”. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about.

While I could single out several of the compilations that featured on the show and talk about them for hours, it was one particular tune I played – Anthony Johnson feat Charjan’s ‘Every Day Is A Gunshot’ – that has left an echo in my head, and which has resonated through til now, and connected with some other thoughts and tunes to make a single thread.

That tune is from a little known compilation on Fresh Records, a division of Freskanova Records, which reflected a movement in youth culture in the late nineties that, much like dubstep now, ignited and galvanised urban youth, then spread through the country and left its legacy, like a time capsule, buried in the minds of kids who would go on to discover Pro Tools or Logic years later and resurrect those sounds.

The original is on a compilation called ‘Orijanahl’, put together by a chap called Simon Smugg, who I remember appearing on Nick Luscombe’s Flo Motion show years ago, and is a tune loved by reggae-weaned trainspotters like Dan Le Sac and Iain Baker. But, more to the point, the version on Fresh Records’ ‘Hype The Joint’ album is a remake, a DJ mash up, using beats from a scene which, at the time, I had virtually no love for but which, interestingly, I am now increasingly looking back on with much more fondness: UK garage.

When I see the phrase written down now, I still recoil slightly, remembering the waves of awfulness perpetuated in the name of that genre years ago. I remember the loathing I had for many of the characters involved in it, but the interesting thing for me is how all these things can be changed by one powerful, all conquering force: Time.

Music, and indeed pop culture, which it is a part of, are so cyclical, and I’m finding myself now fascinated by the positive echo which started with UK garage, and which you can hear right now in the most gloriously post modern productions of Jamie from The XX (his version of Florence & The Machine’s ‘You’ve Got The Love’) or Doorly’s wonderfully wonky version of Marina And The Diamonds’ ‘I Am Not A Robot’. You can hear those crisp snares in productions by Skream, and be reminded of the very best the genre had to offer when you hear Nero’s luscious remix of MJ Cole’s ‘Sincere’. Amazingly, I’m finding myself missing something I didn’t think I liked.

All of this has, as I say, got me thinking, mostly about time, and how it can really, profoundly change the way you feel about something, or someone. It’s obvious, I guess, in the context of an old flame, or an old argument, or an injury, that time heals… but less so with a perception of music.

I do love a good turn around. Robert Miles proved this, unknowingly, when he remixed The Loose Cannons, years ago, and ended up on my show, and at Remix Night. Same for Enter Shikari. Both went from being loathed to being loved in a short space of time. I love how a simple thing like a bit of time, plus a few random variables to do with the Remix show, can inexorably shift emotion and feeling.

In my head, all that shit I used to hate about garage has fallen by the wayside, gone into the fire I lit last weekend at Persian New Year, which my family celebrates each year at the vernal equinox. Without fail, we gather, build a fire and ceremonially jump over it, giving all our bad thoughts and feelings from the year to the fire, so we can start the year with a clean slate.

It’s my favourite time of year. Proper new year, from before the time organised religion showed up and ruined everything. The winter is entirely behind us and the summer is entirely ahead of us, and that optimism is embodied, for me, right now, by the fact I’m now feeling love for a genre I hated. Just time plus the positivity garnered from looking at something through somebody else’s rosier tinted eyes, has effected a marvellous u-turn in my musical memory, and made me a better person as a result.

Enjoy this time, it’s so short, but so wonderful. It starts the week before the equinox, when you get a little glimpse of warmth, a reassuring hand on your back, after the seemingly endless winter, and it ends when Wimbledon is around the corner and you’re enjoying delicious Cotswold asparagus.

Spring. It’s here. It’s maximal, it’s sexual. Love it and live it. Breathe it in, smile, and share that smile with everyone around you.

Much love,
eddy X

Eddy Says from this edition of the CMU Remix Update.



READ MORE ABOUT: | | |