The Angel Blog | No Gravity… |
“Ultra Light” on the dark side… That’s where Supa Crucial is starting off 2010. The soulful single by The Angel featuring Jhelisa has been given the dnb treatment by LA’s own R.A.W. aka 6BLOCC as well as Dstar & Mason, part of Philly’s Gasm crew. These remixes will satisfy those who gravitate toward a beautiful, sultry vocal blended with dark bangin’ beats. Release date is Feb 16th, but you’ll find an early taster below…
It’s release day for “Ultra Light” and I’m steeped in projects that won’t see the light of day for a few months yet… from hard edged, grimey, dubstep infused tunes, to scoring a film that requires me to work in a very traditional palette of piano and strings, while talking to remixers about getting both dnb and dubstep remixes of tunes from my forthcoming album, which, by the way, has nothing to do with this exclusive single release featuring my partner in crime, Jhelisa. Many fingers in many pies, and why not? – living my musical life to the fullest 
I’m wearing lots of hats and trying to help the marketing gurus figure out which version of The Angel we are focusing on today… “Ultra Light” takes me full circle back to my downtempo chilled roots, so maybe today is about The Angel Classic, (if only I had the Coca Cola logo)… I was so deep into this tune, that I wound up doing two versions for the single… the main mix plus the “Sustenance” mix for ultra lightness!
Here’s a peek into a moment that helped create today’s focal point…
The two of us can be quite fierce, but we spent most of our time laughing and enjoying being in our own sistahood… This likkle clip of Jhelisa at LAX goes toward explaining why
And last but not least, a BIG SHOUT OUT to DJ Drez for a lovely remix!!
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Nothing beats working with someone whose talent is so remarkable, so pervasive that you can feel it from light years away… Jhelisa is such an incredible spirit, not only a phenomenal vocalist, arranger, writer, producer… She’s a fireball of energy, a catalyst of intensity and a creative being like no one I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.
We go way back… In fact, Jhelisa and I were both living in London when I produced and recorded my very first album for Delicious Vinyl; the ill fated, never released, “A Message From The Angel…”, but that’s another story. I was singing back in those days, but never happily… The voice that I heard in my head, as I wrote and produced those songs, was way more soulful than I could ever manage and knowing my own limitations, I was keen to bring in guests to fulfill the potential that I felt I couldn’t reach on my own. When Jhelisa agreed to sing on a bunch of the songs I was in seventh heaven…
So that was then, and you’ll probably never get to hear any of that material for a million different reasons, however, earlier this year Jhelisa and I teamed up in LA and the first of two very different tracks are about to be released, “Ultra Light” by The Angel feat Jhelisa on September 22nd and “Words Like Daggers” as 60 Channels… But the icing on the cake is additional Jhelisa flavour on my upcoming instrumental album, “Xtra Sensory Goodness”. For a little extra background on Jhelisa, here’s a mention in this August’s Spin:
More info on “Ultra Light” in the coming weeks!!
This compilation LP is a collection of tunes that I have produced and collaborated on over the past 10 or so years. It contains both new remixes and hard to find remixes, plus unearthed gems, like the track I produced for Tre Hardson, “10 Million Ways,” which is commercially released here for the first time.
As promised, here are more behind the scenes anecdotes about how some of these tracks came to be… Not every song has a story, but a few of these have a history that you could never know, unless I told you… so here goes:
The history behind “Baltimore”
This is one of my all time favorite tunes. Now I normally would never think to touch a song that I feel so passionately about, but I got a flash of inspiration to try a version with Mystic and Cokni O’Dire singing on it, bringing it up to date, but basing it on the Tamlins/Sly & Robbie version. This was recorded in the late 90’s and by this time Mystic had started to fully embrace her desire to sing… more on this below.
My original mix of “Baltimore” was released on the album, “No Gravity,” but the Supa Crucial Mix, which opens this album is released here for the first time… On a side note, it felt particularly good to be able to personally give my version to Baltimore’s own, Charles ‘Roc’ Dutton, when I scored “Racing for Time,” for him.
Here’s a shot of nostalgia for those of us who grew up listening to the Tamlins version of this classic tune.
My original 12 inch of Baltimore by The Tamlins, still playable after all these years
The history behind “Act As If”
It was the film, “Boiler Room,” directed by Ben Younger, starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nicky Katt, Jamie Kennedy, Scott Caan, Tom Everett Scott, Nia Long and Ben Affleck that spawned both “Destiny Complete” and “Act As If.” This is such a great ensemble cast that everyone warrants a mention. For those of you who are familiar with the film, you’ll recognize the phrase “act as if” from the scene where Ben Affleck is giving the team, the sales mantras… including “always be closing” and “telling’s not selling.”
Ben Younger and I discussed the idea of having me create an end title song for the film, so I reached out to Divine Styler, who wrote the lyrics and vocalled the track. As is the case with lots of film and TV projects, songs go in to the film just as quickly as they get bumped out… and in the end this song never made it into the film, however, the original version “Act III Mix” was included on the “Boiler Room (Original Motion Picture Score)” album. On this new compilation the “Act I Mix” has never before been released and the “Act II Remix” version is on my previous album, “No Gravity.”
The history behind “Destiny Complete”
At the same time, I recorded a short cue, called “Segue To Work” which had a cool vibe and was written for another famous scene in the film, when Vin Diesel does his best, Gordon Gekko impression, while the boys are watching “Wall Street”… Originally, Ben wasn’t too sure about the cue. So I asked him if it was the whole cue, or if it was maybe some element in the instrumentation that wasn’t feeling right. Turned out that once I muted the organ riff, he went from doubting to loving it – and then further encouraged me to create a whole song around it.
I had already sampled some of my vox and Mystic’s to include the cue as background vibe, so it only made sense to bring in Mystic to write lyrics and then vocal the tune. I had already experienced her writing talent, when I brought Mystic in to work on my remix of Donald Byrd’s “Kofi”, years before… She has an incredible ability for getting to the heart of the subject and then giving a very moving performance… Now, I had really wanted her to rhyme the verses, but I had apparently opened Pandora’s Box when I got her to sing some parts on the “Kofi” remix and after much resistance, Mystic has been singing ever since. So when it came to “Destiny…” she told me that she really wanted to be singing over this beat and I followed her lead. That became the orginal version, which was included in the bar scene where Giovanni Ribisi and Nia Long are having a heart to heart…
Some time later, I felt like I was still missing something that I was jonesing to hear on this track, so Mystic and I revisited it and she reworked her lyrics and rhymed the verses. So in the end that became the “Bittersweet Version.” New remixes of both versions of “Destiny Complete” were given the Jahta treatment by DJ Drez and are now available on this album…
DJ Drez, The Angel & Mystic - Destiny Complete (Bittersweet Version) video shoot 2002
The history behind “OK…Alright”
Back in ‘98 I was asked by Tripek Records if I would like to license a track to a Bay Area compilation album that they were putting together, called “Rules Of The Game.” By this time I had already brought Mystic in on the “Kofi” remix and we had an ongoing dialogue about how to help get her signed and how to help her get her own material out there. She had been featured as a guest on various other artists’ projects, but as yet hadn’t released a record in her own name. So I told her that I instead of giving an Angel track to the compilation, I would produce a track for her that we would release under her name… and that became “OK…Alright”. Back in the day, before the digital age was even close to what it is now, we really didn’t have many outlets to release records. It was costly, and without a label’s marketing spend, it was too difficult to promote records, even if you did manage to press some up yourself…
So months after the release of “Rules of The Game,” Allen Avanessian (Headset/Plug Research) remixed “OK… Alright,” and we were all diggin’ it, but had no where to release that mix on it’s own. And then we all moved on to the next priority and the next and inevitablly the track got buried, until I rediscovered it this year. It now has a whole new life on “Supa Crucial Downtempo Remixes & Rarities.”
Enjoy… and check post dated March 19th for other bits and pieces about this release.
It’s amazing how much music gets made that either never gets released or that only gets a limited release… remixes of the moment or songs that had no home because they were too different for a specific album, or simply because, at the time, there really was no outlet for them in the grand scheme of things.
I took a trip down memory lane through the Supa Crucial catalogue over the past month and realized that we have some real gems that either, no one can find out there anymore due to labels having gone under, limited vinyl releases that never got digitized or simply because tunes got lost in the flurry of new activities and priorities… temporarily forgotten but the love was never lost.
Hence we are compiling and releasing these downtempo beauties in April. Here’s a little early behind the scenes info…
DJ Drez gives The Angel “Destiny Complete (Bittersweet Version)” & OG version feat Mystic, the Jahta remix treatment
One time Garth Trinidad favorite Jaz Klash “Thru The Haze (The Angel Remix)”
Divine Styler’s remix of The Angel “Make It Betta” feat Tre Hardson originally a limited vinyl only release
The Angel “Act As If (Act III Mix)” feat Divine Styler originally released on the “Boiler Room (Original Motion Picture Score)” album
The Dread Flimstone & Paleface remix of 60 Channels “Ride With The Flow” originally a limited vinyl only release
Headset (Plug Research) remix of “OK…Alright” by Mystic unearthed and unreleased until now
Tre Hardson “10 Million Ways” produced by The Angel – this track was recorded at a time when there was no logical home for it, but there is now
Some more surprises… but you’ll just have to wait for the next installment to find out about the rest. Stay tuned!
Now available on iTunes – The Bristol Remixes by DJ Die, SUV, Flynn & Flora & More Rockers
KiDULTHOOD Opening Theme (‘08 Remix) and KiDULTHOOD Opening Theme ringtones now available at Thumbplay