Ed Laliq: Bea-Tea-Full-Day Remixes
Kitty-cuts

Londoner Ed Laliq follows his first solo album, Prime Penny Gaff, with an EP of stylistically varied remixes by Oliver $, Jules Etienne, and Harry Axt that go down smoothly. Oliver $ treats the tune to a slippery yet minimal deep house treatment in his ‘Beautiful Rework' whose jazzy burble paves the way for Laliq's voiceover and soulful female recitations of the song's title. Jules Etienne's jerkier ‘Microsampling Edit' weds a lurching groove with jittery synth shimmer and micro-voice edits to create a spacey and fresh take on the original. The loping Harry Axt remix is even more tripped-out, a hand-clapper that prods its sputtering, bass-driven groove with wild flurries of cut-and-chopped vocals. The album version of “Bea-Tea-Full-Day” is included too and its theatricality is in stark contrast to the other three. Bright synths and piano carry the opening before the slightly Latinized rhythms and Laliq's smooth croon—the chorus “It's a beautiful day, beautiful day, such a beautiful day” particularly nice—take over. Not inappropriately for an EP, his original is a song, while the others are tracks—dance mixes essentially.

June 2007