Vitalik - Credit The Edit

Turning the whole birthday celebration format on it's head, Vitalik are welcoming in another year by giving rather than receiving. Getting together label favorites Pezzner, Anonym, Soulade and Franklin De Costa to put together a package of re-edits especially - get them here. To go with the Allstar Edits we've spoken to label boss Ryan O'Gorman, about putting the package together and all the artists involved about what the edit is to them. (Anonym, also put together a special mix to go with the edits, get it here) and you can catch Vitalik at We Love.. at Space Ibiza. Tickets and info here.

Download Vitalk Allstar Edits here

Ryan O'Gorman

You've set about putting together a collection of re-edits, can you tell us a little bit about the project?  The idea came about when I was looking at ways to promote our birthday event with We Love Space on the 2nd of August. I wanted to do something a bit more engaging than the tired old promo route of getting some PR person who is being paid to find new adjectives in their thesaurus for "good", "exclusive", "special" etc, finding new ways to tell the same story basically. I strongly believe that you need to offer people something more than advertising and hype if you want to communicate what you do to them. Giving people music seemed like a really nice way to promote our artists, the label and We Love while offering people something they can actually enjoy.

Who have you got on board, to do this and why have you picked them? I asked artists who I thought would be able to step up task at hand and who would enjoy the challenge, some of the guys already had edits ready. I'm genuinely incredibly proud of what they have done here, I am very grateful to all of them.

What's the essence of an edit to you? Well I guess traditionally an edit is where an artist has reworked a piece of music that wouldn't normally be workable in their set, initially this was done with disco then later house, looping parts of the track to fit a 4/4 signature. It can also just be a case of you putting your own flavor on something that has inspired you. Essentially you retain the vibe of the original track and you add your own spice. I think you always treat the original track with a certain degree of reverence with an edit.

Do you have any intention to do a vinyl only edits label? No I don't believe in making a profit from other peoples music. People have gotten away with selling really blatant edits of big disco and soul tracks in recent years because the bigger labels haven't really looked at the electronic scene as a threat, in many cases they see it as the revival of certain artists to an audience that otherwise wouldn't encounter them… on the flip side I am sure there are plenty of kids who think Soulclap wrote a lot of Fleetwood Mac and Womack and Womack records. I think it's cool as long as the next generation acknowledge the original artists you know. So yeah I'll give this stuff away but selling it seems like a step too far for me.

Pezzner

How did you choose the track you re-edited? Re-editing tunes is common practice for me.  Its something I do just before a show so that I can easily seat a track that would otherwise be a difficult mix into my DJ set.  For me, choosing songs to edit is not a whole lot different from choosing songs to play during my set.  Sometimes I hear a song on the radio, or television, or in a shop and the second I decide "hey that would sound amazing on a dance floor.  I get to work, tracking it down."  

Can you tell us how you approached your re-edit for Vitalik. I dont spend a lot of time on these edits. What I do to these songs is simple, and I try not to alter what the tune already had going on.  Its pains me to hear house bootleg edits of tunes by artists like Stevie Wonder or Prince and they've been mangled in Ableton with typical house clackety clack beats underneath them.  My approach is different.  For the most part leave the tune alone - don't destroy the integrity of the music, and try my best to conceal the fact that the track has even been edited at all.  

Who would you class as the master of the re-edit? Greg Wilson.

What are the challenges in producing an edit as opposed to a remix? The biggest challenge in doing an edit for me is to produce it in a way that convinces the listener that this is somewhat of a long lost essential edit.  Something that sounds as if it was forgotten for years and suddenly pulled from the vaults.  This means finding the right eq balance, and brining in the most appropriate percussions to add to the edit.  It also means being very careful avoid any time stretching artifacts that come from stretching and pulling the sample.

If you could re-edit any artist in musical history, who would it be and why? Difficult question because of my approach.  The second I think that I want to edit a tune, I pretty much stop at nothing until I get it and do it.  At the moment I'm in search of a pristine quality copy of Instant Funk's "Its Cool".   And if I could get the stems for any of the tunes off Herbie Hancock's 'Feets Don't Fail Me Now', Id get right to work

What's the appeal of the re-edit to you? What I love about doing my own re-edits is that I dont usually give them to anyone.  These are very personal to me, and something that I usually only share at my shows.  They are my own secret dance floor weapons that you may only hear if you come to one of my shows.  It's very very rare that I ever give these away.

Franklin De Costa

How did you choose the track you re-edited? Nautilus is one of the most sampled tracks in hip hop history. I really like it and always wanted to do something with it. So i used this opportunity.

Can you tell us how you approached your re-edit for Vitalik. Well it´s actually more of a reinterpretation / remix than a simple cut-up job as i´m not really doing edits normally. I took the original. put it in my sampler and used snippets and parts, pitched them and played a new sequence with it. So the loop was created without the typical "famous 2-second-snippet looped and filtered with extra drums & percussion on top". I stayed away from too much soundprocessing so the essence is still there. Finally I added some analog synth for the break and finished it. did it in 1 day so it´s pretty rough mixed.

Who would you class as the master of the re-edit? I cant really anounce a master. In general i dont care much about most edits as i´m not really a disco or pop fan but i can enjoy some stuff Theo Parrish or Mark E did.

What are the challenges in producing an edit as opposed to a remix? As i´m not a friend of average edits i guess the challenge is not to ruin a great song by great musicians with your cheap ableton cuts, drums and filters and basically ripping off someone else's work with no additional value for music culture.

If you could re-edit any artist in musical history, who would it be and why? If i would have access to all the original production stems i guess it would be the early Michael Jackson. Reason is the soundquality of the recordings his producers had. would be nice to hear the single sounds and work with them.

What's the appeal of the re-edit to you? Personally i prefer to make original tracks. There are not many people who have the talent to pull that off doing a really good re-edit and i leave it to them.  

Soulade

How did you choose the track you re-edited? I've always been a huge fan of Bill Withers, even his speaking voice has an amazing timbre to it. This particular track holds a special irony for me too as my own grandmother had her hands chopped off in a freak bacon slicer incident.

Can you tell us how you approached your re-edit for Vitalik. It's a pretty simple groove, most of the detail is in the drum programing, I found some nice live kits that worked well with the original percussion then had some fun with the drum fills. It's a pretty infectious loop, no digidy wot wot…

Who would you class as the master of the re-edit? The Dirty Sound System have done some great edits, many of them are more cover than edits, they make some really interesting interpretations, refreshingly different. The revenge and Greg Wilson are pretty tasty too, Wilson's live edits are always an interesting performance to witness. 

What are the challenges in producing an edit as opposed to a remix? Isolating the sounds you need is always a challenge when you don't have the individual tracks or parts, then arranging your loops or sections into something like a coherent song structure, from something you have already deconstructed is always fun. Keeping the original swing and groove of a played piece when you are constructing it in a sequencer is a challenge too.

If you could re-edit any artist in musical history, who would it be and why? I'd love to work with Jim Morrisons vocals, any of the musicians in Sanatana, Ry Cooder's guitar tracks or Rolf Harris's gnarly wobble board solos.

What's the appeal of the re-edit to you? It's fun, your sounds and general idea are already there so the initial building blocks are there pretty quickly.

Anonym

How did you choose the tracks you decided to re-edit? I don't really choose them. It's more the songs choose me or speak to me in some way. That combined with timing gives it form.

Can you tell us how you approached your re-edit for Vitalik?  First I saw them in the club from across the room. We had nice eye contact a few times. I thought why not? So I went across the room and asked if they wanted to dance. We then had a wild night in the club and continued over to my place. When I woke up in the morning. They were both gone and these two re-edits where in their place....

Who would you class as the master of the re-edit? Larry Levan 

What are the challenges in producing a re-edit as opposed to a remix? Challenges with making a re-edit are. That you want to retain enough of the original to let people easily recognize the song. At the same time making something new and fresh with it. Remix is basically the same, but you can twist it up more and put more of your own sound to it. Really make it your own.

If you could re-edit any artist in musical history, who would it be and why? With technology these days I can remix any artist from musical history. If you mean an official remix. I would say Art of Noise Or Kraftwerk. Why? Is both groups music had a profound impact on me since childhood and it would be more then an honor to be asked by either.

What's the appeal of the re-edit to you? As a child I liked to take things apart. See how they worked. Then put them back together in a different configuration. When I ventured into the work force. My job was industrial demolition. Tearing down high rise buildings, factories, chemical plants and oil refineries. Then sending all the possible materials to be recycled. I suppose it is the same thing now. I just do it with music.

Get Vitalik Allstars edits here

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Listen to Vitalik on Pulse Radio