CREDIT TO THE EDIT VINYL THREE

[Greg Wilson]

ROCKERS REVENGE ‘Sunshine’
SALSOUL ORCHESTRA ‘Ooh, I Love It (Love Break)’
BT (BRENDA TAYLOR) ‘You Can’t Have Your Cake And Eat It Too’

Disco Record Of The Week at Piccadilly:

http://www.piccadillyrecords.co.uk/v...eek=0&genre=22

From Sleevenotes:

For the third 12” in the series I’ve chosen a trio of Legend / Wigan Pier classics from the golden 82/83 era, by Rockers Revenge, the Salsoul Orchestra and BT (Brenda Taylor), which all featured on my Piccadilly mixes back then, but have been enjoying a new lease of life in the clubs during recent times.

In the summer of 1982, ‘Walking On Sunshine’, Arthur Baker’s Electro-Funk masterpiece, arrived on import and instantly went massive on the black scene, before going on to become a major UK chart hit and one of the biggest dance releases of the year within mainstream clubland. The edit here is built around two lesser known versions, issued back-to-back a few months later, ‘Sunshine, Partytime (Rap)’ and ‘Dubbing In Sunshine’, which I was playing at Legend and Wigan Pier, whilst the main mix was climbing up the pop charts. Elements of both these mixes (as with the original version, courtesy of ‘Jellybean’ Benitez and Baker), including the rap section that namechecks some of the great New York clubs of the era, are combined, along with additional vocal parts from a third source, ‘Acappella Sunshine’, to create a unique version for 2005.

Next up is ‘Ooh, I Love It (Love Break)’ by the Salsoul Orchestra, edited from mastermixer Shep Pettibone’s brilliant 1983 remix. Pettibone has never really had the same type of acclaim as his contemporaries, Larry Levan and Francois Kevorkian, but he was a huge inspiration for me, especially his work on the Prelude compilation, ‘Kiss FM Mastemixes Vol 1’. This was one of two Vincent Montana Jr productions that topped my floorfillers lists during this period, the other being his Montana Sextet release, ‘Heavy Vibes’, the previous year. I originally edited this as an instrumental ‘sketch’ inspired by Spiller’s ‘Groove Jet’ (the pre Sophie Ellis-Bextor version). However, more recently, following the release of ‘The Salsoul Acappellas’, I added the vocal sections. The resulting version immediately felt like it should be the opening track on the album, perfectly setting the tone for its summer release.

Finally it’s BT (Brenda Taylor) with a track that was originally issued on a small Washington based label called After Hour, but quickly picked up by New York’s essential West End label. ‘You Can’t Have Your Cake And Eat It Too’ was mixed by Nick Martinelli and David Todd, becoming a big underground favourite during 1982. My decision to edit this was because the excellent instrumental version contains different, more dynamic, elements, which aren’t included as part of the indispensable vocal mix. With this in mind, I wanted to bring the best of both mixes together, to form a new hybrid version. This was the final edit I did for the project and quite tricky in a sense, demanding some lateral thinking, due to the edit points being more difficult to negotiate than on most of the other tracks. However, on finishing it, I was more than happy with the result and felt that, with its inclusion, the album was finally complete.


Copyright Greg Wilson 2005

www.electrofunkroots.co.uk