Deep Cuts Week, Day Four: We Keep You Waiting

I am slightly sick today and have been losing at Gunstar Super Heroes for about five straight hours, so this may be even more disjointed than usual. The important thing to take away from today is that Gunstar Super Heroes is fucking awesome.

Loleatta Holloway, "I May Not Be There When You Want Me (But I'm Right On Time)" (Tom Moulton Re-Edit) - As those of you familiar with Loleatta can probably already guess, this is something of a soul diva showcase performance in the same way that Hurricane Katrina was a pretty windy couple of hours; I can't imagine what, if anything, she'd have left in the tank after cutting loose with a depths-of-the-earth howl like the one at the end of this. By my estimation, it's also one of Tom Moulton's finest hours, and I say that as someone who's never even heard the original - it's just that his version is actually able to sustain seven and a half straight minutes of pure soul-goddess fireworks without ever slipping into the realm of aural wallpaper; this shit's just as driving and dramatic at minute six as it is when it first kicks in. I mean, where exactly would the radio mix of this come from? There isn't a point where you could cut in anywhere in this mix; it's just all straight-up fire. (Click here to buy Anthology, Salsoul's recent greatest-hits compilation of Loleatta, from Amazon)

Tom Vek, "Nothing But Green Lights" (Phones remix) - I'd say that Paul Epworth has about a %30 success rate whenever he adopts his "Phones" moniker for a remix (way to ruin "Heartbeat", champ), but his successes (notably the ones for "Banquet" and "The Good Ones") are so unstoppable that I jump on them all immediately anyway. The interesting thing about Epworth has always been his unique ability to bridge Cool Kids Music with Everyone Else Music - that is to say, whatever it is that's keeping the Futureheads or New Rhodes out of the very front of your everyday Sprite-drinking New Balance-wearing TRL-remembering non-voting twentysomething consciousness, it can't possibly be that burnished-to-a-brilliant-shine sound. The Phones remixes, by contrast, are less "Hey everyone, let's listen to this" than "Hey everyone, let's all get up and dance" (which is probably where the problems with the remixes come in - I mean, not everyone necessarily wants to get up and shake it to the shattered electro of the "Retreat" remix or the aforementioned Annie one), and in that respect this one may be king of them all; "Nothing But Green Lights" isn't nearly as good a song to start from as "Banquet", but remixed, it sure does have that shimmering synth straight out of "Once In A Lifetime" and then GOOD GOD does it ever have that part with the Madchester pianos. Well done, Paul; now let's hurry up and get that White Rose Movement album out already. (Click here to buy the "Nothing But Green Lights" single from Juno)