The Cult of Romance

It’s summer. Don’t believe me look out the window. You are going to need a song to accompany the fun times ahead. For millions of kids across the world it will be Jeremih’s Birthday Sex. The song is ultimately divisive, most music (R and B especially) purists hate it, others don’t mind, surprisingly I haven’t heard anyone that flat out hates it. Either way the song isn’t fast enough to be enjoyed during the afternoon, it’s a little too slow.

Step in Damage and DJ Venom. Their remix of the track is easily the best one that I have heard. The song is instantly transported from the bedroom to the club, beach or even the park. It’s like its has been merged with all those memories of early 00’s soulful garage, late 90’s euphoric house and today’s UK Funky.

I asked DJ Venom a couple of questions about their remix.

Who are you?

I'm DJ Venom from North London and I make grimey bass music with DJ Damage.

Why Jeremih?

We choose the song because it's fun. And.... most hip hop and R'N'B's between 80-110bpm which means you have to add nasty time-stretching to get it to a danceable bpm. This track's about 60bpm - we could add a double-time 120bpm UK funky beat without any hassle

What other stuff are you working on?

Currently we're working on lots of original material and a few more remixes. I'm a big fan of all the new diva groups like Rich Girl, Electrik Red and Vistoso Bosses. I wanna do some bootlegs soon. We'll have a mixtape out dropping in a few weeks too.

Surprisingly this song doesn’t use autotune, he does that naturally with his voice. What are your thoughts on Autotune?

Autotune has its place but it's a bit tired. All the 90s new jacks and jills didn't use it. I guess that's why that stuff sounds really fresh at the moment.

You can grab the mptrois over here.

Home Zone

I love remixes. Not just in a wave your-hands-above-your-head whilst you are off your tits way. That’s too simple, I actually sit down and try to break down each remix, picking off what the producer choose to manipulate from the original song. It’s like trying to undo a jigsaw puzzle.

I can’t even choose my favourite remixer. I would have to ask them to battle it out in an epic four way cage match. Imagine a bout between Erol Alkan, Paul “Phones” Epworth, Hot Chip and Soulwax. It could even be given some tacky name like The Remixers Rumble. Erol would probably win since he also remixes as part of Beyond The Wizards Sleeve.

Remixing is easier than creating a song from scratch, Justice have a tried and tested mathematical formula. Yet I can’t help but be excited by the prospect of any new remix.

Well I used too. Now we are flooded with every bedroom DJ making mash ups and blends of tracks that grates my ears. Each one hoping to become the next L.A. Riots and making the jump from Blogspot favourite to Kylie Minogue remixer. The majority of these shit DJs will be playing at your local Walkabout pub on a Friday night. And that’s where they should stay.

Yet due to my addiction to the good shit I am forced to trawl through these musical abortions. The tango version of the Arctic Monkeys, the trance remix of Usher’s In This Club and the happy hardcore version of The Terminator theme song, I’ve heard them all. To steal from The Blackout Crew, all the DJ’s do is put their own donk on it.

[Pic - DJ Orgasmic, a great remixer, producer, DJ and good dude]