The rare instance of a song that’s too iconic for its own good (surely not for whoever owns the publishing), but fortunately it’s to the point where you can take out 95% of the vocals and it still hits its marks. So we did just that with the hope that a dubbier take can make it more accessible in non-wedding/sports stadium settings.
Another classic that’s on some “missing-half-bar-will-spit-in-the-face-of-your-well-timed-mix” shit….
Play: Rapper Dapper Snapper (Its Overture Short Fix) - Edwin Birdsong
Download: Rapper Dapper Snapper (Its Overture Short Fix) - Edwin Birdsong
An amazing and classic song with way too much talking, though considering the title, I guess one should expect as much. And it’d be all good if the instrumental version didn’t have the most banging elements tucked back in the mix and obscured, but since it does, I tried to combine the best of both worlds with this edit…..
Play: Chit Chat (Its Overture Edit) - Cajmere
Download: Chit Chat (Its Overture Edit) - Cajmere
Despite its somewhat calculated/rehashing-of-past-glory feel, I dig this track off Method Man’s 3rd “Tical” LP…..rap at 110 bpm is hard to come by as it is and i think this fits pretty well into the early-night club crate….once i discovered its original sample on a Sitar Beats compilation, I figured i’d give it a little intro and breakdown drop….enjoy!
Play: What’s Happening (Its Overture Edit) - Method Man feat. Busta Rhymes
Download: What’s Happening (Its Overture Edit) - Method Man feat. Busta Rhymes
I just realized that we have done way too many Hot Chip edits. Here’s a couple of them to start with. Plenty more to follow…
When the now indispensable Amazon MP3 system went up I did random searches of all my favorite artists in hopes of finding unknown gems like this one here….well referring to the original as a “gem” would be a bit of an overstatement…..Premier’s production on here is of my favorite variety and there is the added bonus of an almost minute-and-a-half scratch routine ala “DJ Premier Is In Deep Concentration” but Robby Robertson’s (of The Band) beat poet vocals are straight laughable…that is until he ruins a B-section (a rare Premier treat oddly only bestowed upon non-rappers) with his bullshit. As a result, that part couldn’t be included in my edit….luckily the main part and the scratch sentence (more paragraph-like) saves an otherwise odd duck in the legendary Premier discography……
Robbie Robertson - Take Your Partner (DJ Premier Remix) (Its Overture’s Deep Concentration Edit)
Here’s an edit of ‘Bicycle,’ a standout track off the incredibly good Memory Tapes album ‘Seek Magic.’
I know I can speak for Macabee (for those still getting acquainted, the other half of Its Overture, myself being RiVerse) when I say that the highest priority of this blog is to focus on things we love. At the same time, to fully represent how and what we spin, we can’t ignore an often necessary element of DJing: playing straight up pop music.
The epitome of such necessities is the wedding. Weddings are the kind of DJ jobs where you become the most selfless (if you’re doing your job right) and REEEALLLY exemplify the “DJ as humble servant” role, rather than the artist or tastemaker role that most of us like to fancy ourselves as. But since we can’t, in good conscience, phone it in when we spin such events, we often do edits of said pop songs to make them more mix friendly, more concise, less corny, etc.
So to share the functionality with our fellow working class DJs, we’ll be posting some of these edits from time to time. Here are three for starters……
Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy (Its Overture Edit)
INXS - Need You Tonight (Its Overture Edit)
EMF - Unbelievable (Its Overture Edit)
Now to be clear, many of these more pop-friendly songs that I’m speaking of can also be favorites of ours. The distinction is that in contrast to the aim of most posts on this site, we’re well aware that we’re not “putting you on” to the under appreciated merits of INXS’ biggest hit…….
For each of these 3 edits we took a dance-floor-friendly track and cut down some repetitions , letting us “get to the good stuff” much sooner. Here, the “good stuff” is the disco chant breakdown of ‘Body Crash’, the frenetic pitched-vocal peak of ‘West Side’, and the horn-heavy mariachi madness of ‘Hey U.’
Buy Now - Body Crash (Laidback Luke Remix) (Its Overture Edit)
Basement Jaxx - Hey U (Switch & Sinden Remix) (Its Overture Edit)
Studio - West Side (Klumpfisk Remix) (Its Overture Edit)
oh…and the mystery fish above is a Klumpfisk…
…the more you know…
In addition to mixes, we’re gonna be posting a fair amount of our edits and blends as well. Though many will be tailored for fellow DJs, hopefully most will be a good listen for all.
So to set it off with a little class, this is a song by Sylvia Striplin that I love (no pun), produced by the legendary Roy Ayers, and whose original structure isn’t very fun to mix with. Went short and sweet with it…..
Right-click and Save Link As:
Give Me Your Love (Its Overture Edit)