LINE UP

Amerie, DJ Hell, Kylie Minogue, Carl Craig, The New Radicals, Gwen Stefani, Talking Heads and Sir Elton John. No, not an arbitrary list of musicians whose relevance to each other is governed by the fact that they all appeared in the previous sentence together; rather, eight artists lucky enough to have received a generous sprinkling of Radio Slave’s magical remix alchemy.

Over the last decade-and-a-half remixes have had something of a chequered history. At their best – see Andrew Weatherall, David Holmes and even some of Paul Oakenfold’s early work – they are a legitimate, artistic skill. The deconstruction and reconstruction – creative sabotage if you like – of a piece of music can be worth its weight in gold. At worst, they are a cheap and pointless exercise in excessive marketing; no better than cheesy and exploitative window dressing.

Matt Edwards resides firmly in the former camp. As Radio Slave – firstly with Serge Santiago and, for the last couple of years, on his own – he transforms tracks into something else: fresh and exciting pieces of music that urge of you only one thing, the compulsion to dance.

His background as an early acid house convert and graphic designer meant that his aesthetical ethos was geared towards manipulating sound: playing with it, toying with it. As a DJ his music tastes range from electro to techno by way of house and broken beat. But it’s his love of disco re-edits, the likes of which mastered by such ‘70s stalwarts as Walter Gibbons and championed by Harvey, that gives him his edge.

Radio Slave first came to prominence with their astonishing re-working of Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. Attaching it to New Order’s Blue Monday was undoubtedly a stroke of genius and from then on, the offers never stopped.

Matt and Serge went their separate ways in 2003, but Matt has gone from strength to strength. As well as his incendiary DJ sets, also under the Radio Slave moniker, Matt has evolved into a man with many musical hats. His productions as Rekid, Matthew E, Quiet Village and Sea Devils range from spaced-out stoner funk to propulsive dancefloor monsters, and from intricate widescreen cinerama to blissful electronic pop.

With his talents as a remixer feeding into his own productions and vice versa, Matt Edwards is one of the hottest characters in dance music today. Yet don’t try and peg some fashionable hook upon him, his wildly varying skills makes it impossible for anything to stick.

 To wit, consider the varying sounds of these following artists: Tiga, FC Kahuna, The White Stripes, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Paul McCartney, X-Press 2, Ralph Myerz. We probably don’t have to explain their significance to each other now, do we?

www.myspace.com/rekid    
www.rekids.com
www.hyperspace.co.hu
www.deadcode.hu
www.myspace.com/hyperspacecohu
www.myspace.com/deadcodeproduction

vissza