- If, as Ronan Fitzgerald rates them, Simple Records is one of the top ten UK labels to watch, then Will Saul's forthcoming Simple Sounds compilation is its calling card. A two-disc set, it seeks to locate Simple in the dance music firmament five years after its birth. Part and parcel with this CD release are three EPs, each complete with a Saul original and a remix by a Saul fave.
The first EP brings an exclusive, '3000 AD.' It leads off the CD, but the version here is a few minutes longer, extending the pensive chords that open and close the track. In between we get a healthy dose of Saul's romantic streak via fathomless pads and lush synths – 'deep' begins to describe it, but that somehow fails to capture the way this turns everything epic for a few minutes.
Wahoo (Innervisions major domo Dixon and producer Georg Levin) show up on the B-side, remixing 'Mbira.' Their take discards the digitalism of '3000 AD' and goes for live-sounding drums, giving the track a propulsion it previously lacked. Even so, it sounds as though Saul used the same synth palette for '3000 AD' as he did for 'Mbira', making the moment when the chords peek through the jungle an intensely familiar one.
That said, even if Saul is beginning to pull the same rabbit out of his hat, I'm pretty eager to find out how many times he can do it before I want him to stop.
TracklistA 3000AD
B Mbira (Wahoo Remix)