19. DAVE TAYLOR (SWITCH)
“For me remixing is just an excuse to be a bit experimental,” says Dave Taylor, confessing he “can’t actually remember the last actual solo single I had out.” Obviously best known as both Solid Groove and Switch, Taylor’s career has been defined by his ability to take on anyone from Basement Jaxx to Bugz In The Attic and wrestle them into unique underground slabs of quirky cut-up house and Brixtonian bump-funk. Assuming position as the fidget movement’s untouchable remix king, Taylor’s mastery of the zany bleeping cut-up house sound has seen him called upon by P Diddy, X-Press 2, The Chemical Brothers, Evil Nine, Simian Mobile Disco and Les Rhythmes Digitales for that unmistakable mix of bumped funk rawness and bleep n’ bass madness. But not only loved for those killer chopped drops, Taylor’s remix stamp has been instrumental in blowing open the genre-barriers over the past five years and filling out the fidget sound by borrowing on everything from hip-hop sensibility, booty bass energy and tribal shaking rhythms. Essentially, if there’s a hook, be sure Taylor can hang it on something so devastatingly funky it will slay all floors in its path. “It’s all about taking stuff out of their original context and putting stuff in places it wouldn’t normally fit,” said the man himself. AM
Selected Remixes:
Evil Nine feat Juice Aleem ‘Pearlshot’ Sharon Phillips ‘Want 2 Need 2’ ● Coldcut ‘True Skool’ ● The Chemical Brothers ‘Galvanize’ ● ●
18. JOEY NEGRO
Along with CJ Mackintosh and Full Intention, Dave Lee (aka Joey Negro) has similarly clocked up as many US mixes as UK ones. A founding father of the UK house scene and passionate disco aficionado, Joey Negro is just one moniker for the man born Dave Lee on the Isle of Wright. His first production work came when he started his own Republic Records label, in 1988, and recorded M.D.EMM’s ‘Get Busy’. Joey Negro was created three years later for the singles ‘Do It Believe It’ and ‘Do What You Feel’. Lee’s ability to mix up pop with dance has been well documented and culminated most notably with Take That’s version of ‘Re-Light My Fire’ with ’60s icon Lulu. His most satisfying achievement was remixing Diana Ross’s ‘Love Hangover’. “It’s a song I had liked since I was a kid and getting multi-track tape for a classic is quite special,” enthuses Dave. “I tried to bring it up to date but without losing the original parts — adding bog standard house instrumentation to something like that seems wrong to me. “My remixes of Reese Project’s ‘Direct Me’ and
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Souled Out’s ‘Shine On’ are favourites for the opposite reason, as I changed everything apart from the vocals — including the tempo. If you are losing all the original music then the mark of a good mix is when the vocals sit better over the new backing track and it sounds like the new mix was the original.” LD
Selected remixes:
Nomad ‘Devotion’ Reese Project ‘Direct Me’ ● Katherine E ‘I’m Alright’ ●J akatta ‘American Dream’ ● ●
17. MASTERS AT WORK LIL’ LOUIE VEGA & KENNY ‘DOPE’ GONZALES
One of the most successful remix teams in the last two decades, Masters At Work’s unique combination of hip-house-jazz-style remixes have made them originators in a sound that has been often imitated yet rarely successfully duplicated. Louie Vega is often cited as the Miles Davis of dance music: impossible to categorize and constantly reinventing himself. During a two-decade long career, the Hispanic producer has crafted some of the most ground-breaking singles in dance music history (‘The Nervous Track’, ‘It’s Alright, I Feel It’ and ‘You Can Do It’), kickstarted genres like soulful house (‘Beautiful People’, ‘I Get Lifted’) and revitalized the careers of legends like Roy Ayers, George Benson and Tito Puente. The Masters At Work moniker was conceived in 1987 when he teamed with Kenny Gonzales — known as a living encyclopaedia of beats and purveyor of sonic masterpieces. As producers in the ’90s they followed different musical paths under their guise Nuyorican Soul, blending house with jazz and helping
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