Tom Moulton .. New Remixes

[ashley]

I'm looking for new Tom Moulton mixes .. Can anyone help? .. I already have his new 11 minute remix of Eddie Kendricks "Keep on truckin" on the double Soul Jazz CD .. and the recent superb 9 minute remix of "Get down tonight" from the KC & the Sunshine Band 25th Anniversary double CD .. and the 9 minute remix of CJ & Co "Devil's Gun" from "New York Classics volume 1" CD .. I also own the white vinyl 12" remix of Sylvester "I need you" which is about 7 mins in length & is reputedly a recent Moulton mix .. as is the incredible 8 minute white label 12" remix of "The Player" by First Choice (this actually sounds amazing .. imagine the girls going into battle with MFSB & the Salsoul Orchestra ) .. I also have the Tom Moulton remix of Jimmy Ruffin "Tell me what you want" from the double CD "Disco Gold" (which could be a new mix .. however Chess Records may have kept this locked in a cupboard for over 30 years) .. there is a rumour Tom recently remixed & re-designed Gloria Gaynor "I will survive" apparently stretching it to a glorious 10 minutes .. is this mix available anywhere? .. and are there any others? .. Tom should have his very own page here on DiscoMusic.com .. then he could tell us what's happening himself ..

[The Boogie Doctor]

Jump on to discogs.com for an exhaustive list of all of his remix work...

Tom Moulton

peace and love
the boogie doctor

[Disco Funk]

I'm not too crazy about Tom Moulton's new mixes. The ones that sound faithful to the originals (by that I mean the instrumentation sounds like it might have been mixed around the same time back in the day) are probably unreleased mixes he did back then. I've noticed that his recent creations tend to sound flat and lack punch. I believe it was him behind the DJ Tools series, which was put out by Salsoul. There were 8 or 9 12"s of Salsoul tracks that featured specific songs at various levels of being stripped down. For example, one 12" was My Love Is Free by Double Exposure, so you got an instrumental mix, vocal acapella, rhythm section only, etc... But the drums on those 12"s sounded NOTHING like the originals. No snap no punch no bottom, and disco is all about the drums!

I also disliked his remix of The Player because I found the strings were out of synch with the rhythm section. I don't know how that could be, if one were to assume that the original master tapes had orchestral tracks devoted to it. Maybe he separated them from the rhythm track, thinking he could do something with it, but when it came back together, it was slightly out of synch.

He also did a remix of Waitin For The Rain by Fantastic Johnny C on the Philly Steps CD. I dislike that because he ruined the sound of the hi-hat! The original version had a nice, loud Earl Young philly hi-hat, but Moulton's remix had the hi-hat muffled! The drums overall sound muddled on his remix. The only cool thing about it is you hear more vocals from Johnny C that weren't in the original version. I guess the intention was to eventually put out an LP, or maybe they intended to edit it down differently into single length.

Anyway, that's enough of my rambling on that.

I've been more of a fan of the Kenny Dope remixes. He's been able to capture the old school sound in his remixes. There's a CD out of his Randy Muller mixes; plus there are 12"s out of his remixes of tracks by BT Express and on Nervous he remixed I Can't Stop by John Davis Monster Orchestra.

I haven't gotten into Dimitri From Paris all that much, but he's done faithful recent remixes of tracks like Down To Love Town by The Originals and Frenesi by The Ritchie Family. I've only heard the latter, and it's really great. You'd think it was a mix from 75. The only tell-tale sign it is recent is the anachronistic reverb he uses a couple of times on the vocals. Other than those instances, it's incredible.

Sorry I can't give Moulton's work today as much praise as I would say about his work back in the day.

Disco Funk

[ashley]

.. .. I have a few of those Salsoul dj tools 12" singles .. and was quite impressed with some of them .. I love the extended instrumental breakdowns .. ( I agree the drums sound a bit funny .. but I suspect the dj tools series was intended for modern house dj's, rather than ancient disco-duffs like ourselves) .. Tom Moulton is still king of the disco remix .. and I can't believe you don't like his recent remixes on First Choice & the Fantastic Johnny C !! ( I hope to God poor Tom Moulton isn't reading this stuff .. ) .. those 2 remixes make me bump & hustle all round the kitchen .. "The Player" & "Waiting for the rain" have been completely restructured, obviously with much love & time consuming attention to detail .. each new remix must require many weeks of hard work & dedication .. I think these new remixes eclipse all the stuff he churned out back in the 70s ( when he basically spliced the vocal & instrumental versions to create a longer mix ) .. What we are hearing now in these new mixes is a complete redesign .. surely we can forgive the occassional technical slip .. especially as the finished product is so wonderful .. Tom Moulton has moved beyond simply extending a tune .. .. The other disco remix producers just sound lazy & tired in comparison .. the Kenny Dope mix on BT Express sounds exactly like the original Tom Moulton version, only with more bass .. how is this a remix? .. and the Dimitri mix on the Originals "Down to love" is just a a sloppy re-edit .. .. However with a new Tom Moulton mix the sun comes out & it feels like 1975 all over again !

[ashley_k]

On the subject of the Salsoul DJ Tools 12" singles - not really sure what they did to the parts on those DJ Tools but most of the extra parts sounded very poor, separate bits like the strings kind of sounded like they had been taken from acetates or an old cassette tape, I couldn't really work out why they sounded so poor, not sure if they used some sort of phase cancellation technique/e.q./filters to separated out some of the bits, or they have been taken straight from very poor copies of the multi track tapes or the original multi track tapes used some sort of noise reduction system that was not available when they came to play back the multi tapes 20-30 years later, or they may just have decided that they didn't want the parts to be available with a high sound quality so they made them into low quality mp3 files before mastering them so that people could not make nice re-edits/mixes or steel clean samples from them.

For whatever reason the Salsoul DJ Tools were quite disappointing especially considering how much they cost to buy in the UK, still quite interesting to hear some of separated parts from the tracks though even with dodgy sound quality.

ashley_k

[Disco Funk]

I guess it goes to show that everyone has their own expectations from remixes. Me, I'm a purist in that I prefer to have my music sound as close to the original mixes as possible. I get even more excited if the mix is just a stripped down version of the original, that way if I'm in the mood, I can always create my own composite by combining the breaks from the new mix into the original mixes.

I didn't really listen carefully to the DJ tools records. I only noticed that they had drums that weren't as crisp and tight as on the original records for some reason. I didn't think one could mess that up. Even a quick, rough mix (a reference mix?) from the original sessions would probably still have had the punch, so someone must have messed up the sound of the instruments at the recent (DJ Tools) mixing stage. Its possible that they did use a low resolution audio format to copy the songs onto a PC, and then created the 12" Tools master from those? That wouldn't make sense if you're gearing the records for audiophile DJs. I'll have to check them out again...

Disco Funk

[ashley]

.. thanks to the Boogie Doctor for the link to this site's own Tom Moulton discography page .. unfortunately this page is woefully out of date & doesn't mention Moulton's recent 9 min mix of "Devil's Gun" .. or his 7 min mix of "I need you" .. or his extended mix of "Tell me what you want" by Jimmy Ruffin as featured on the Universal "Disco Gold" double CD .. or his new mix on the Fantastic Johnny C .. .. which makes me wonder what else is new & missing from the list? .. .. I have a 10 min 12" bootleg of Eddie Kendricks "Date with the rain" which is also rumoured to be a Tom Moulton mix .. although if it is, it's not up to the standard of his recent stuff as it's more like an extended re-edit ( .. so Disco Funk will love it )

[Disco Funk]

Nope, I dislike reedits. Some are interesting, but most can be pretty boring, like Danny Krivit's re-edit of that Caress track on his CD. I liked how he combined Koke and I Can't Stop Talking, but he only used the LP mixes (Part 1 of Koke was only in stereo on the LP). I might attempt a mono merging of the two parts of Koke and I Can't Stop Talking to make it nice and long!

That Dimitri From Paris version of Down To Love Town was a remix. I wasn't referring to the edit he did on the Playboy Mansion CD. It was a more recent CD that he put it together from the original master tapes. I heard an audio sample of the track, and could instantly tell it was a true remix.

I bought the Date With The Rain 12" and didn't like it, so I made my own. What I did was I took the intro break and used the separate channels and layered it until it the verse section came in. Then I did the same thing in the middle. It wasn't a true stereo mix, though. Fake stereo, as its called or out of phase stereo. I'd love to post a sample of it, but I'd be breaking the forum rules...

Disco Funk

[ashley]

well thanks Disco Funk .. it seems you are correct .. Dimitri has twice messed with the Originals "Down to love town" .. it's obviously a favourite of his .. the first attempt was a re-edit back in 2000 on his "Night at the Playboy Mansion" .. however his new 9 min Disco Citay remix on the recent "In the house of love" is a genuine remix ( .. and a good one too ! ) .. thanks for bringing this to my attention .. superb ..

[ashley]

.. I've been receiving more info on new & recent Tom Moulton remixes .. seems he remixed "Stoned love" by the Supremes on the first "Motown Remixed" compilation a couple of years ago .. and this remix, like the rest of that compilation, is superb .. although I've seen a U.S. edition that is missing this track ( .. the British edition certainly has it on there .. ) .. and last year Moulton did 2 remixes on Ron Hall "The way you love me" on Defected .. plus he's done some recent production work on the Brand New Heavies .. I'm still curious about this much rumoured remix of "I will survive" .. one of the other disco websites states it's a 12" release titled "I will survive dub version by Tom Moulton" .. has anyone seen it?

[ashley]

.. Rhino in the U.S. have just re-issued the first Blue Magic album on CD with an additional bonus Tom Moulton remix of "Look me up" .. the CD is called "Blue Magic remastered & expanded" .. let's hope they do the same with the other Blue Magic albums .. most especially "Thirteen Blue Magic Lane" to include the much prized Tom Moulton remix of "Magic of the blue" .. (another promo 12" from 1976 that recently cost me a fortune) ..

[Dayna]

Tom is Pushing for
Philadelphia Classics 2 to be in the works.where as he will remix "Was That All It Was by Jean Carne"
plus others..

[ashley]

.. wow .. thanks Dayna .. a "Philadelphia Classics vol 2" from Tom Moulton would take years off me .. it would work better than a bucket full of botox ..

[Disco Funk]

Originally Posted by Dayna

Tom is Pushing for
Philadelphia Classics 2 to be in the works.where as he will remix "Was That All It Was by Jean Carne"
plus others..

Thanks for that little tid bit of information. If you can get other track listings out of Tom (I don't know if it was part of the interview questions you submitted to him) that would be great. I'm curious to find out if they're Philly International songs only, or if they're stuff recorded at Sigma but were released on various labels like Philly Groove, Atlantic, Buddha, etc...

If they are PIR tracks, here are some tracks I think were too short and should have gotten an extended treatment back in the day and it would be cool to see them on this PC2:

People's Choice - Do It Anyway You Wanna (I didn't like the re-edit on the Philadelphia Classics redux CD; it needs to be completely remixed from the master tapes)
The Ebonys - Hook Up And Get Down (this track is so good, but it's too short!)
The Futures - Stay With Me (it would be awesome to hear this early disco track in extended form)
Instant Funk - It Ain't Reggae (this track is also too short. I re-edited myself to make it longer, but I think it would sound better if remixed from the original tapes)
Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes - The Love I Lost (I think it would be great to hear an instrumental section incorporated into this classic)
The Jacksons - Enjoy Yourself (well, this wasn't put out on PIR, but it was a Gamble & Huff production. An extended version of this track would be nice to hear).

Disco Funk

[Dayna]

Originally Posted by Disco Funk

Thanks for that little tid bit of information. If you can get other track listings out of Tom (I don't know if it was part of the interview questions you submitted to him) that would be great. I'm curious to find out if they're Philly International songs only, or if they're stuff recorded at Sigma but were released on various labels like Philly Groove, Atlantic, Buddha, etc...

If they are PIR tracks, here are some tracks I think were too short and should have gotten an extended treatment back in the day and it would be cool to see them on this PC2:

People's Choice - Do It Anyway You Wanna (I didn't like the re-edit on the Philadelphia Classics redux CD; it needs to be completely remixed from the master tapes)
The Ebonys - Hook Up And Get Down (this track is so good, but it's too short!)
The Futures - Stay With Me (it would be awesome to hear this early disco track in extended form)
Instant Funk - It Ain't Reggae (this track is also too short. I re-edited myself to make it longer, but I think it would sound better if remixed from the original tapes)
Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes - The Love I Lost (I think it would be great to hear an instrumental section incorporated into this classic)
The Jacksons - Enjoy Yourself (well, this wasn't put out on PIR, but it was a Gamble & Huff production. An extended version of this track would be nice to hear).

Disco Funk

That wasn't from the Interview.."I am still waiting for the return answers,The Holidays is a bad time to ask someone for an interview, but I grabbed it when I could"
That information I got from Jean..