Welcome Stranger - Let's Get Lost Volume 4

Welcome Stranger
Let’s Get Lost Vol. 4
LET'S GET LOST

In the same way that contemporary art sometimes does, edits can often provoke an annoyed reaction in people. Much like someone scrunching up their face and slagging off a Damian Hirst, so too can an edit be quickly dismissed with the quip, “Oh I could’ve done that.” They might be right too, for these days any Johnny Beatsmith can easily splice one together on their laptop. But with there being so many of the friggin’ things out there, any edit worthy of your time and money needs to either bring something new to the table, be an uncovered gem, or both.

The A-side of the latest 12-inch for Mule Musiq’s offshoot series, Let’s Get Lost - courtesy of Thomas Bullock of Rub n Tug fame – sort of falls into the latter category. Well, unless you’re well schooled in 70s pop and were already aware that Olivia Newton-John once did a disco cover version of Dolly Parton’s Jolene it does. It definitely doesn’t fall into the former, because apart from Bullock inserting a cheeky Dan Aykroyd quote from The Blues Brothers and doing a bit of chopping and extending, Brolene is really not all that different from Newton-John’s cover.

On the flip, however, there’s a bit of both at work. Bullock simply but effectively loops the hell out of a Moog sounding guitar and bass line from ZZ Top’s lesser known I Wanna Drive You Home, adds a few BBC Radiophonic Workshop-like acid stabs and space whooshes and voila; the effect is an 80s southern rock track that magically morphs into the funky, mid-tempo disco chugger American Cars.

To the budding producer out there, I know what you’re thinking. You could have just as easily come up with these edits yourself, right? Well let me use that age old, rather irritating retort: “You didn’t though, did you?”

Henry Johnstone

Tracklist: Welcome Stranger - Let's Get Lost Vol. 4
A1. Brolene
B1. American Cars