Nick Pride+

We recently went through the Liberation Frequency archives and dug out a great Q&A with Nick Pride (of Nick Pride & The Pimptones fame) – largely inspired to do so from having unquestionably scored the song of the summer with ‘Everything's Better in the Summertime’ (Mayer Hawthorne’s ‘Crime’ coming in at a close second, by the way!).

Before we discuss *new* music by the group however, aside from their debut album release (‘Midnight Feast of Jazz’), discussed within the interview, there was also reference to a remix project which was subsequently released following that chat in 2012.  The very, very limited hardcopy is available via the Record Kicks site only, but widely available as an MP3 release.  While ‘Midnight Feast of Jazz’ served as the band’s ‘interpretation’ of jazz music from the perspective of a soul and funk band, these interpretations are now offered up to new perspectives from DJs and producers who re-mix, re-interpret and re-imagine the original songs embracing even more sounds and styles including dance, explosive soul numbers and even Latin rhythms.

Smoove’s (from Smoove & Turrell) remix of ‘Waiting So Long’ (featuring Jess Roberts) makes the cut, but new to our ears would be (Daytoner's remix of 'Hug Lorenzo', Diesler's remix of 'Hotdoggin', along with other DJs and producers, such as Fab Samperi, Danny Massure and Wild Palms.  James Baige's rework of 'Lay It On The Line', which opts for a completely new groove as the song builds slowly around a nice guitar pattern, while still thankfully retaining Zoe Gilby's guest vocals, was a strong contender to be the quiet show-stealer here, but that was before the funky/R&B-infused Ill Advised remix of ‘Brighter Day’ kicked in.

But about the NEW music I mentioned… as I say, I was initially making this post to highlight the brilliance of ‘Everything's Better in the Summertime’ (which was made available as one of the exclusive new tracks on the new Record Kicks compilation celebrating their 10-year anniversary), but the band seem to have found a way to post-jack themselves as I’ve just discovered their cover of Massive Attack’s ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ – apparently only made available as a 7” near the end of 2012.  How did this completely pass me by?!?!  Well, these two tracks have left me practically salivating for a new album so here they are for you guys to enjoy as well…