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BEST REMIX

Jessie Ware 'Running (Disclosure Remix)

To say Jessie Ware’s had a good year would be rather an understatement. Her diva vocals, that hark back to a golden era of house and draw comparisons with Sade and Donna Summer, have found increasing favour with the UK bass scene’s underground producers and, like Katy B before her, garnered a Mercury nomination.

It’s perhaps natural, then, that the scene’s hottest young things should have stepped up to the plate on remix duties. Stripping out the electric guitar solos, reverb-drenched drum breaks and stadium R&B atmospherics, they re-imagined the Julio Bashmore-produced record as a skipping slab of stepping 4/4 garage.

The boys have always understood the power of a strong vocal, and here it seemed as if Ware’s voice had been designed for Disclosure. It was a remix that felt more natural than the original.

“We got sent the original song and we just loved the vocal,” explains Guy Lawrence, who makes up half of the hotly-tipped production duo alongside his brother Howard. “We knew we could work it into a track with a higher tempo and add a more garage, housey feel. We just knew it would work before we even took it on.” The result was a record as ubiquitous at festivals as warm beer and wasps, but far more welcome. A sing-a-long, hands-in-the-air anthem, built from something far frostier.

“The original is quite dark,” agrees Howard, “We wanted to lift it and brighten it with the remix, and make it more accessible to the clubs and DJs.” And as anyone who caught the boys' Boiler Room set alongside Skream back in November will know, a new ‘VIP’ remix will hopefully soon find the light of day. Heading down an even more Croydon alley, it’s a darker, synth-heavy take that’ll keep your remix of the year on the radar for a while yet to come.

 

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