10 songs to go further into Todd Edwards - Part two
This is part two of my list of 10 tracks to go further into New Jersey garage experimentalist Todd Edwards. You can read part one here.
6) Todd Edwards - Where Are You
2006 saw the release of Todd Edwards’ masterpiece: Odyssey, an album that dripped with elegant misery, as Edwards pushed his music above and beyond the places that house music typically goes.
I’ve written about this before so I won’t go into Odyssey at too much length. Suffice to say that the album centres around a mid section with lyrics closer to Joy Division than Masters at Work (consider this from Silent Prayer: “No happiness, can I recall / My family said, it’s all my fault / I medicate, to numb the pain / Go out all night, and start again”).
There are so many brilliant songs on Odyssey that it was hard to choose just one; but I will go for Where Are You, an electro-ish R&B number, like Kraftwerk producing for 80s Whitney Houston, with a devastating chorus, sung by Todd himself, which I think may well be his best turn as a vocalist, entirely desolate but catchy as hell.
7) Todd Edwards - Counting / Kraftwerk - Numbers (Todd Edwards remix)
As I mentioned in part one of this list, Todd Edwards does like to go back to ideas, as if his fiercely creative mind can’t rest until he has absolutely nailed the notion that was driving him mad. Counting first appeared as the last song on Full On Volume 3, the strangest and perhaps least satisfying volume of the compilation series (and yet still really great, as if Todd could do anything but.)
The song borrows both fluttering synth sample and the concept from Kraftwerk’s classic Numbers: i.e. robotic voices counting up and down in various tones and languages, under which Todd runs a staggeringly tight drum and bass swing. And the results are great.
But Todd came back to the idea later, throwing his hat entirely into the Kraftwerk ring with a proper remix of Numbers. I first heard this version on the November 2009 mix that Todd did for the Treehouse party, after a period in which he had given up the day job that was sucking out his soul and got back heavily into music; and I think he subsequently gave it away on Soundcloud.
In any case, where Counting strolled, Numbers flew, Todd using basically the same drum and bass pattern and the same Kraftwerk samples as on Counting but indulging himself in employing the whole Numbers vocal. It is possibly my favourite Kraftwerk remix ever, a staggering example of how a producer can mould their own sound from the Kraftwerk blueprint, without being intimidated by or in any way betraying the original. It should serve as a lesson to all remixers ever and I would love to hear it on a dance floor some day.
8) Justice - DVNO (Todd Edwards Sunshine Brothers remix)
By 2007 Todd Edwards had become so burnt out on music that he quit production and took a job in customer services. Thankfully this retirement didn’t last long and in 2008 a legendary French dance duo called on his services to spice up their Gallic production.
But no, not Daft Punk. This time it was Justice, backed by Daft Punk’s one-time manager Pedro Winter, who engaged Todd to remix their track DVNO as part of a single package. I’m not Justice’s greatest fan and Todd has hundreds of fabulous remixes in his catalogue. But the reason I had to include his take on DVNO is for the melody he crafts out of his various samples.
Edwards has always had a very strong sense of melody. You can hear this, in an obvious way, in the vocal lines he wrote for Daft Punk; but it is also this melodic ear that keeps his sample collages so fascinating, with Edwards - like MK before him - crafting brilliant hooks out of his base material. In his remixes he typically gives the song in question a whole new melody using fragments of the old one - and Edwards’ melody is, nine times out of ten, stronger than the original.
His “Sunshine Brothers” take on DVNO - see part one of this list for more on the Sunshine Brothers name and, to be honest, I have no idea why he uses it here - is perhaps the best example of this, home to an original Edwards melody at about 1.32 (and subsequently repeated throughout the song) that feels genuinely world-beating, to the extent that I have always wondered what would happen if a global star (Beyoncé, say) dug into Edwards’ Justice remix and decided to employ the melody to their own ends. A hit, I say. Oh and the breakdown at 2.47 is one of my favourite moments in all house music.
9) Enya - Trains and Winter Rains (Todd-i-fied mix)
2009 was a hell of a year for Todd Edwards, as he roared back into musical life, embarking on a busy DJ schedule where he seemed to play every night to adoring crowds who weren’t just there to see a Daft Punk collaborator in the flesh. (I think it was 2009 when I first saw him DJ, a totally joyous night out in Fabric. Although I almost went to that 2003 gig in Romford that has lit up social media ever since. I promise.)
To mark his return - and plug those DJ dates - Edwards produced two essential mixes: the Treehouse mix I mention above and the FACT mix that is, for me, among the best thing Edwards has ever done. Both mixes included a wealth of new and unreleased material that was genuinely thrilling to hear. Treehouse had the Kraftwerk remix, as well as Todd’s own take on Face to Face that, for me, far eclipses the original; and it ended (well, emotionally, at least) with his recently released Liturgical remix of Appaloosa - The Day (We Fell In Love), a perfect pop song wth haunting choral samples that it kills me not to include in this run down.
The FACT mix was even better, home to his so-unlikely-it-could-only-work remix of Japanese sludge metal band Boris; his live-wire and trembling take on Talking Heads’ Burning Down The House; his God-level mix of Kingdom’s Mind Reader, one of the most insouciant house music numbers ever and, I think, my favourite song of 2009.
So why isn’t it included here? Because space simply must be made for Edwards’ Todd-i-fied mix of Enya’s Trains and Winter Rains, a song fresh from the Irish singer’s 2008 album And Winter Came… (although not Todd’s remix - that was strictly unofficial.)
Some context is needed. The last decade or so has seen a massive Enya revival, with her name fawned over by countless underground musicians who have taken inspiration. And, while I don’t often listen to Enya un-remixed, this seems like a good thing. Back in 2009, though, this very much wasn’t the case: Enya was still seen as that New Age warbler who your Aunt insisted on listening to as she drove you to the garden centre. So to see her resurrected in this way, by one of dance music’s most revered producers, was a revelation. (Even though Todd has long spoke of his admiration for Enya’s voice.)
Todd’s Enya mix also spoke to what a master of production he is, transforming an original that is beautiful, if rather plodding, into a buzzing dance number while keeping the integrity of the song in place, as if Trains and Winter Rains had finally found its destiny. I reckon Enya would love it.
10) Libera - Lacrymosa (Todd-i-fied Remix)
But if that was unlikely, Edwards’ remix of Mozart’s Lacrymosa, as sung by classical crossover boy band Libera, went several steps further into astounding. You know Lacrymosa: it’s in a lot of films, sounding all angelic and nautical. (Well, I think it sounds nautical, anyway.) It is beautiful - the kind of song to drive you into sneaky bathroom tears when you watch the wrong film after a boozy lunch. But it is not, in any way, a dance song.
Until, of course, Todd gets his hands on it, at which point he sticks a tough four four bass drum under it, adds a wandering melodic bass line, insolent hi hat and tiny touches of keyboard, while keeping the vocal pretty much intact, if ever so slightly clipped, the most respectful sample cut up that Todd could bring himself to do. It shouldn’t work. But BY GOD it does, creating one of the weirdest, most emotional and unlikely house remixes of all time, the kind of production that I genuinely think only Todd Edwards could have done.
Edwards released it as a free download on his Soundcloud on Christmas day 2010, making the Todd-i-fied Remix of Lacrymosa both the most Christmas-y house song ever and probably the best present I got that year.
Some listening
Crush is one of those brilliantly labyrinthine electronic music tracks that is impossible to pin down. It starts off at one speed, then, by clever sonic trickery, appears to speed up, even if the actual BPM doesn’t budge, then adds a classic rave vocal sample that is both out of time and perfectly in. The song then caps all this by pulling off the trick in reverse, appearing to slow down while still cantering along at the same elevated pace. It’s a very clever piece of music, a kind of sonic trompe-l’œil (a trompe l’oreille, maybe?) that never feels academic, cold or studied.
I am biased because I love drums, drummers and all that falls between them. But Estradas, the collaborative album between Valentina Magaletti - a drummer who has played with everyone - and Kuduro producer Nídia is a fantastic work, where pretty much every element in the mix feels percussive. Andiamo, which opens the album, is a great example of this, a bit like Jlin with a more acoustic, European flavour: intense but with a view of the Mediterranean sunset.
Camacho y Cano’s Hagan Rueda is by no means new, having first been released in the 1970s (I think). But I include it here as it is the first single to be taken from a new Analog Africa compilation that has been absolutely lighting up my world. Super Disco Pirata - De Tepito Para El Mundo 1965-1980 is a compilation highlighting Mexico City’s sonidero culture in which DJs brought parties to the city’s streets, playing variations on the cumbia sound. Hagan Rueda is an utter joy of sliding doors trombones, percussion chatter and a brilliantly shrill keyboard riff.
Tarta Relena - Si Veraish a La Rana
At first glance, the new single from immaculate Catalan vocal duo Tarta Relena sounds like something of a turn towards the commercial, with its rattling tambourine and synth fuzz. Then you realise that a) Si Veraish a La Rana is in some weird kind of time signature I can’t quite work out - possibly 5/4. B) It is a version of a traditional Turkish / Ladino song about a frog and c) Tarta Relena have always been subtly commercial - accessible perhaps - even at their most folk librarian. This song is as catchy as toad flu.
Manu Le Tough / Perel - Entertain Us
Entertain Us is pure cosmic pop music, the thrilling rush of a glittery synth arpeggio meeting an elegant and rather mysterious end-of-the-galaxy melodic trill, to which Perel adds an understated, searching vocal with lyrics about the human race. The result falls half way in between two Giorgio Moroder classics: I Feel Love and Chase. (Although not that good obviously because no one is that good.)
Things I’ve done
Line Noise - With Valentina Magaletti
On Line Noise this week our guest is Valentina Magaletti, a brilliant drummer, percussionist and composer, who, in collaboration with the great Kuduro producer Nídia has made one of the most intriguing, drum-heavy albums of the year (see above). We talked about her favourite drummers (and drum machine programmers); about ceramic drum kits, playing live, collaboration and more.
The playlists
There are two: The newest and the bestest, with all the best new music of the last three years; and the Newest and the Bestest 2024, which is a variation on the above that you can probably work out. You get all the songs here. And you even get some more.