As proud and as happy as I was to release TMSk8 in November, I was also fortunate enough to remix tracks by a few other bands and artists this year. Some of the work on these remixes even influenced the way I made the tracks that ended up on TMSk8. So I thought I would package them all up as a special End of 2020 / Christmas time download on a free / PWYL basis on Bandcamp. The album collection can of course be downloaded for free (just enter 0 when prompted for a price) but any profits from donations will be donated to friends of TM, The Oxford Foodbank who do amazing work redistributing surplus food to charities and organisations that can use it and educating people on food waste. Here’s a bit of background on each of the tracks.
- Tiger Mendoza & Kate Herridge – Words (Dub Mix) – Original
When I started playing Words live at a couple of gigs I started doing some live dubs on the vocals which sounded kind of cool so I thought a full dub mix, or at least my interpretation of dub, would be fun. - Abandon – Fear Of The Future (Dub Mix) – Original
OK this remix was technically completed in 2019 but wasn’t released until 2020 soooooo…….counts? Anyway I’ve known Umair for a little while and when he asked me to do a remix of a track for a new single release I was happy to help out. Originally I was going to turn in in a more of a DnB track but I made a half time dub as well for giggles. When I sent them both to Umair he chose to go with the Dub mix which I think was the right choice. The DnB remix, which has never been released before, is included in this collection as well as I think it’s still pretty cool. - Octavia Freud – Smoke & Mirrors (Tiger Mendoza Remix) – Original
This remix was made right at the start of 2020 before, well, 2020 really happened. Octavia Freud (aka Martin) did a great remix of “And Then…” for the New Ideas album so when he asked me to remix one of his tracks I was happy to return the favour. Sound wise, it’s almost got a kind of punk / nowave feel but with breaks. Always with breaks. - Smilex – X (Tiger Mendoza Remix) – Original
Long-time fans of TM will know that Lee Christian (frontman for Smilex) and Tiger Mendoza go back quite a while with Lee being one of the first acts to collaborate with Tiger Mendoza on “Don’t Hate Me” on the first TM album “Aim For The Head”. Lee got in touch to ask if I would be up remixing a classic Smilex track to celebrate their anniversary which I was more than happy to do. To be honest I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first but then after playing with the stems for a while I picked the guitar apart and created a 90’s Bjork / Trip Hop style remix which worked out pretty well. - Low Island – Search Box (Tiger Mendoza Remix) – Original
Low Island graciously offered the stems for their single Search Box during lockdown 1 to anyone that wanted them and made some kind of joke around making a Drum and Bass remix. Around that time I got back into the excellent Forza Horizon 4 (and in particular my favourite in game radio station from DnB legends Hospital Records) so I took them at their word and came up with this remix. - Julia Meijer – Train Ticket (Tiger Mendoza Remix) – Original
This may win the award for quickest turn around time for a TM remix ever. Julia got in touch to ask if I’d fancy doing a remix of her song Train Ticket which she planned on releasing on the next Bandcamp day 2 weeks away and would giving the profits to charity. I agreed and created what is probably my most EDM-like track to date. Not that there’s anything wrong with EDM. If used in moderation. When I handed it in Julia said “I will dance to this song every day from now on!”. I do hope that’s true. - Bruno Muerte – Geiger (Tiger Mendoza Remix)
Bini and Stephano have been mates for a while and were even due to play with Tiger Mendoza at the abandoned vinyl single launch back in March. They asked if I would remix one of the tracks from their excellent Parallellism EP so I picked this one. It was mostly done pretty quickly after picking the guitars apart but it worked out well. I kind of thought that it belonged in a game like Outrun so I made this video to go with it. - Breezewax – There For Ya (Tiger Mendoza Remix) – Original
Breezewax did a brilliant remix of Jazzer on New Ideas which I play a lot in my DJ sets so when he asked if I would remix one of the tracks from his new album “Help For Healing” I was more than happy to. My remix owes a lot to producers like Clams Casino and Schlomo but I really like the key change at the end of the original so I made sure I kept it in my mix and pinched the idea for Ja El Beat from TMSk8.
