KID SISTER – Control / Damn Girl (12″ EP)

Fool’s Gold Records FGR001: 18th June 2007
1. Control (Dirty / Clean / Instrumental)
“From the beach, to the lock, to club, to the grocery, Kid Sis run shit, don’t hold me”
2. Damn Girl (Dirty / DJ Gant-Man’s Juke Remix / Instrumental / Scratchapella)
“I pop the joke, you got the boos, when I rock the shows, you got the blues”

‘Control’ is like Missy Elliot’s workout tape with it’s crunching retro beats and shouts of “Touch them toes”. Kid Sister’s flow is so fast and furious that I can barely make out a single line, but the lyrics that I can hear are brilliant. ‘Damn Girl’ sounds like Kid Sister just layered her rhymes over the noise of a games-arcade (By that, I mean it’s ace). Best of all is DJ Gant-Man’s Remix, which ups the tempo of the vocal and adds on some minimal but funky beats, also the “L-L-L-L-Let it percolate” bits are so, so catchy. M.I.A. has got some competition.

Click here to buy the 12″ from Rough Trade or you can download the EP from Beatport by click here.

Kid Sister – Damn Girl (DJ Gant-Man’s Juke Remix) mp3

Click here to read Audictive’s post in a similar vein and there are also a couple more mp3s.

Kid Sister MySpace / Fool’s Gold MySpace

[RE:JAZZ] – People Hold On (12″ EP)

INFRAcom! IC1341: 18th June 2007
1. People Hold On (Original / Tobias Kremer Bigband Version / Metropolitan Jazz Affair Remix)
“Everybody’s looking for a meaning, everybody’s doing their own thing, and nobody’s solving the problem, ain’t nobody helping each other”
2. Gabrielle (Feat. Alice Russell)
“Dancing soon became a way to communicate, feel the music deep in your soul”

Coldcut and Lisa Stansfield‘s classic 1988 song ‘People Hold On’ was a Jazz/Gospel tune packaged as a Dance number. Now nearly twenty years later Germany’s [Re:Jazz] have peeled back those electronic layers and remade ‘People Hold On’ as a traditional Jazz affair. The ‘Original’ version is a minimal but powerful production featuring little else but Tabla Drums, Piano and Inga Lühnig’s rich vocals. It reaches deep into the soul of the lyrics and brings out something magical.

Tobias Kremer’s version is a little too Lounge-Jazz/Swing for my tastes (You kind of expect a voice to come in saying “Ladies and gentlemen… welcome to the Copacabana!”) but it’s interesting to hear the track remade as a full-on Vegas number and the Piano solo is to die for. Bruno Hovart‘s ‘Metropolitan Jazz Affair Remix’ layers on some skittering drums, Funky Bass and a gorgeous Saxophone solo for a Miles Davis vibe.

As a bonus on the EP the ever wonderful Alice Russell adds guest vocals to a cover of Roy Davis Jr‘s ‘Gabriel’ (Renamed ‘Gabrielle’). It contrasts fast tribal drumming with slow sultry vocals to create an entrancing House/Not-House tune. This is a fascinating and captivating EP of different textures and styles and well worth your money.

Click here to buy the ‘People Hold On’ 12″ from Juno Records.

Or click here to buy the EP from 7Digital as wmas, aacs or mp3s.

Click here to view the original video for Coldcut’s ‘People Hold On’ via YouTube.

Click here to watch the new video for [Re:Jazz]’s version on MySpace Video.

[Re:Jazz] – People Hold On mp3
Coldcut – People Hold On (Feat. Lisa Stansfield) mp3
Roy Davis Jr. (Feat. Peven Everett) – Gabriel mp3

[Re:Jazz] Website / [Re:Jazz] MySpace / Alice Russell MySpace