As I start writing this post, the first thing to come to mind is a 1996 episode of The Simpsons called “Hurricane Neddy”. In it, a storm hits the town of Springfield and Ned Flanders finds his family home has been destroyed. Whilst he’s away, the other residents of the town rush to rebuild the house – badly.

After he’s seen the house for himself, Homer leans on the front door. The house immediately collapses. Flanders bursts into a rage and starts insulting various residents of the town who are gathered outside – and of Lisa Simpson, he cuttingly refers to her as “Springfield’s answer to a question no one asked”.

When I first heard “The Age Of Love” by Age Of Love had been remixed yet again for 2021, this was exactly what came to mind. Did anyone ask for a new version of this? And when I discovered it was by Charlotte de Witte and Enrico Sangiuliano, that more or less confirmed it for me.

Who thought this remix was remotely necessary? Remixes already exist by Jam & Spoon, Paul Van Dyk, Baby Doc, Brainbug, Cosmic Gate, Marc Et Claude, Marco V, Abel Ramos, Manuel De La Mare, Solomun – and those are just the ones I remember.

This one only appears to have got a release because De Witte kept playing her version in sets and the online ID community created a buzz around it. It’s the same as what happened with Maceo Plex’s mix of Faithless “Insomnia”. But look at the shameless way De Witte is promoting it…

Has she swallowed so much of her own hype that she thinks herself and Sangiuliano made the track themselves? Heaven only knows what Giuseppe Chierchia and Bruno Sanchioni – who created the original late in 1989 – would make of it…