For this week’s edition of Here’s One They Made Earlier. it’s Natalie Williams. In 2006, she released a song which at the time was in the neo-soul genre. It included a flute solo by Gareth Lochrane and is actually a pretty decent tune. As for Williams herself, she’s well-known within the industry and vastly underrated outside it.

Two years later, a certain DJ and producer called Laidback Luke was experiencing an explosion in his career. His remixes were absolutely everywhere that year, and record labels were desperate to get his name associated with their music. So at some stage, he was asked to remix “You Don’t Know”. See what you think here…

https://youtu.be/gBQjgaPmbKY

As you might have noticed, he didn’t use a great deal of the vocal, using snippets in a way more commonly associated with dub mixes. He took a neo-soul record and turned it into a peak-time record. The first time I heard this one was in Laidback Luke’s essential mix on BBC Radio 1 that year. I haven’t forgotten it since…