Whole Lotta Love and Happiness

Love & Happiness – Al Green
from 7″ on High Records (19).

Algae – Exile
from Phase 1/Phase 2 12″ on Absence of Color.

Baby Please – Jurassic 5
from the album Feedback on (2006).

Love & Happiness Re-Edit – Shoes?
from white label 12″ (2005).

Mini-mega-post today (doesn’t that cancel to make a normal post?) concerning Al Green’s super-classic “Love & Happiness” and all the love (& you know) its been getting from producers lately. First off we have the ultra essential, supremely wonderful original grack from Al Green. I know ear fuzz brings the rarities and more unknown stuff, but I didn’t feel this post would be complete without this track…hopefully you know it, if you don’t then I was right to include it. With the clean, short guitar lick and already isolated and punchy drums this track is a gold-mine to chop up.

LA-based producer Exile (part of Emanon, putting out work on the excellent label Sound In Color) put out this choppy tribute production originally on the grey market 12″ for SiC called Absence of Color Phase 1/Phase 2. Quite a clever title also calling the track “Algae” but the real cleverness is in the beats. The guitar, the drums, even the little horn hook, it is all re-arranged so very well. When he goes a little crazy with looping up the guitar diddling I get tense and delighted all at once. The same basic structure was used for “Baby, Please” the best track on Jurassic 5’s recent album Feedback with the crew vocally riding the beat well and just the tiniest bit of scratching added. Please J5 more like this and much less like the Scott Storch and Dave Matthews Band collabs on Feedback.

Finally, an unknown (to me) producer put out this delightful re-edit “L&H” last year that is typically known as the Shoes Re-edit (there is a sneaker stenciled on one label side and the other is blank – presumably the No Shoes Re-Edit). Regardless, the Shoes re-edit keeps much more of the original order and chops much less than Exile but dubs some of the procussion, pushes the cymbal crashes way out and loops everything to make a very extended mix that is ultra useful for people DJing to the grown and sexy or for that matter the grown and fugly or anyone with taste and mellow steps. It is my favorite for this set although there are quite a few more “L&H” re-edits/remixes floating around especially in house circles.