HOT DAMN, Local Action Records, we love you so. The new London-based label run in the company of Phonica kicks off December in such good style it would knock both Don Draper and Amber Rose off their feet. Earlier this year they released T. Williams self-titled EP, another one by Svpreme Fiend and a wonderful collaboration between T. Williams and Terri Walker, “Heartbeat” (undoubtedly the Mosca remix will appear in a lot Best-Of-2010 lists). And if this weren’t good enough, earlier today they gave away a free Cassie compilation titled “Skydiver” including remixes by the likes of Jacques Greene (check our recent interview with him here), Lunice, Slackk, Altered Natives, Brackles and more. It’s too good to be true, Christmas came early and Sinterklaas arrived a day late. There are three takes on Cassie’s “Me & U” on the compilation, the first track off her self-titled debut released in 2006. Those were the good times. One remix is by Mickey Pearce, whom you might know as Shortstuff – a track under this alias by him is “Tripped Up” which underwent a nice treatment by Ramadanman, or his “What’s Mickey Talking About” remix. His take on the Cassie track is the most serene one out of the three, leaning on wonderful percussion and nice vocal chops. Brackles‘ take on the track is a little more up-tempo and soulful and leaves the lyrics as good as intact and then there is a cover by lady Maya Medvesek, better known as 8Bitch. I’m trying to back off from too many adjectives in this post because I’ll end up describing every track as wonderful and addicting but the 8Bitch cover sure has a good hook too.
Download: Cassie – Me & U (Mickey Pearce’s Mickey Luvs Cassie remix) (320 kbps)
Download: Cassie – Me & U (Brackles remix) (320 kbps)
Download: Cassie – Me & U (8Bitch cover) (320 kbps)
As good as the whole compilation is, it’s not a secret that I am obsessed with Jacques Greene’s Marriage Proposal Mix – the track by Cassie featuring Diddy I wrote about in the last Remixes & Blues edition. Greene’s remix is a thousand times better than the original track: he remodeled Combs’ parts to something of a whole new level; the outcome is chimerical and walks all over the original, as much as I loved it back in the days. It’s all about:
Download: Cassie – Must Be Love (Jacques Greene’s Marriage Proposal mix) (320 kbps)
Altered Natives and Lunice (who just released his EP “Stacker Upper” – something to put on your Christmas wishlist if you haven’t copped it already) remixed the track that features Ry Les, “Addiction”, or rather the Leslie track that features Cassie. Alterned Natives pretty much filtered out Leslie and made Cassie the midpoint of the track which is completely justified with his approach. Alterened Natives’ dub is a bit dark and spooky, but Lunice’s take is definitely lighter. The Canadian wonderboy Lunice does what he does best: big things. Turning tracks into big things, massive things.
Download: Cassie – Addiction (Altered Natives’ TLA Dub) (320 kbps)
Download: Cassie – Addiction (Lunice remix) (320 kbps)
Three more – one remix by Slackk of “Thirsty” where Cassie’s voice meets an acid dub, dutty. One for “Is It You” by Svpreme Fiend, which is out of all remixes probably the one that varies most from the original, pretty deep and mesmerizing stuff. Last up is the remix for “Official Girl” by The Blessings, which has Weezy and a semi-retro hip-hop percussion lead. Moral of the story: this entire compilation is wonderful. I love Cassie, and the artists contributing definitely know what to do with her tracks. There is not one re-fix I don’t like, big up to everyone involved and Local Action. For the entire compilation in one zip, see here.
Download: Cassie – Thirsty (Slackk Remix) (320 kbps)
Download: Cassie – Official Girl (The Blessings remix) (320 kbps)
Download: Cassie – Is It You (Svpreme Fiend remix) (320 kbps)
