There’s sometimes something to be said for getting a professional in to do a job. For example, if your electricity supply went down, it would be perfectly reasonable to get a qualified electrician to fix it. But in the topsy-turvy world of music, we have a whole industry which seems to think normal rules don’t apply to them.
Hence why last week saw the release of “Break My Soul” by Beyoncé Knowles, courtesy of Columbia Records. In our opinion at Ears To The House, this was basically what a major label executive who hasn’t heard any actual house music since 1992 thinks it sounds like. It’s a poor production with a vocal which feels out of place – and an arrangement so sparse it feels like it hasn’t even been finished.
In this day and age, however, many producers see these kinds of records as ideal for making their own remixes. A quick look on YouTube and Soundcloud currently reveals an array of reinterpretations almost as bad – and almost impressively, sometimes worse – as the original. But when someone who knows what they’re doing comes along, things can get interesting.
Which is where Joe Smooth comes in – and to say he’s famous for 1987 hit “Promised Land” does him a massive disservice. He’s been around in house music since pretty much the beginning and still releases new music frequently. So when he premiered his “rough idea” for his own remix of “Break My Soul” on Facebook Live, this was the result…
It just begs the question – why couldn’t Knowles and Columbia with all her connections come up with something like that? Smooth explains briefly on an Instagram video premiering the same remix that he created that on a laptop whilst on a plane. In other words, the guy with a laptop over 10,000 metres in the air made something more polished than a multi-millionaire with access to some of the best studios and best engineers the world of music has to offer.
Fresh from Thomas Barnett showing what he could do with “About Damn Time” by Lizzo, the hint to the pop music world – namely that if they want to make house, they should bring in people who actually do it for a living – grows louder and louder…
