2001 UK garage banger! I was digging through a pile of early 2000s trance records at Byrdland, local record shop near my job, and spotted this Kelis single off her 2nd studio album in the collection. Pharrell produced the original track and it sounds absolutely like his style during his club hit-making era and on the flipside, Timo Maas‘s relatively uninspiring tech house remix (which charted Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play list in 2002).
BUT the A2 track!? A garage monster jam from South London’s So Solid Crew. I’m partial, duh, but I feel like this version captures the hectic spirit and urgency of the original track’s lyrics of being young, fresh and needing to get away from home. Awesome flip of the violin plucks in tandem with that distorted bassline – also, an underappreciated technique in club track structure – there’s no long breakdowns in this remix, just 5 minutes of crusher dancefloor energy. I gotta hear this one go off in a club soon woosh!
Jackson Ryland 