While one track may be over-ambitious, overall, this up and coming DJ plays the right notes in the right places.
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The EP Girl Collection consists of four-track remixes by up and coming DJ, Eddie Hubbard. Having spent the summer entertaining some of the holiday-makers of Kavos, Hubbard has returned determined to launch his name by developing and releasing several remixes. Girl Collection forms the culmination of his latest work.
Styling himself as a “nu-funk and groove house DJ”, it’s no surprise that emphasis of these styles features in the remixes by Hubbard, although it’s perhaps notable that three of the artists covered are not known for these music genres.
The first track covered is Bryson Tiller‘s ‘Exchange’. The background to the original release of the track by Tiller is intended as an ode to his ex and about rekindling old flames. This relatively slow tempo track has been sped up significantly by Hubbard and the baseline manipulated too. He’s also reworked the lyrics to make the refrain of “This is what happens when I think about you” far more frequent at the expense of eliding other passages of the track. Overall, the remix makes ‘Exchange’ a punchier, more rhythmic track. Clearly, Hubbard views the editing and mixing he’s implemented as significant enough to even rename it ‘Think ‘Bout You’.
The next part of the four-track EP is a remix of Khalid‘s ‘Location’. The astonishingly young – still only 19 years old – R&B singer/songwriter Khalid debuted with this single in the summer of 2016, which reached 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and has achieved platinum status. Hubbard here has introduced a new bass and beat solo. In this reviewer’s opinion, it’s a particularly successful example of limited but extremely effective remixing, giving ‘Location’ a smoother flourish to it, while not undermining the chilled-out tones of Khalid.
The Red Hot Chili Pepper‘s ‘Dani California’ is remixed for the next track on the EP, ‘The California’. With ‘Dani California’ being a wonderful track to dance to in its own right and of the funk rock genre, this seemed perhaps questionable as to how a remix by a nu-funk rock DJ could add to it. Even so, the use of drums at the beginning have been swept aside, guitar riffs toned down in parts and more electronica-themed tune introduced in its stead. Meanwhile, the vocals of Anthony Kiedis have been highlighted by a small spoken section. The result, if not improving on an already great track, is enough to match it.
The final track of Girl Collection, a remix of Manchester rock band The 1975‘s ‘Somebody Else’, is by far the most striking. In short, the total effect of the changes brought in by Hubbard here is to lend it such an ’80s feel, particularly to the intro, that it wouldn’t feel out of place as background music in Netflix’s Stranger Things. Perhaps the rock band’s name of The 1975 has irked Hubbard in some way that he’s made such a clear push to ’80s genre-style music? Whatever the reason for the direction of the DJ’s remix of ‘Somebody Else’, it feels to this listener at least as perhaps inferior to the original emotive track by The 1975.
Overall, the EP Girl Collection is well worth a listen, particularly the remix of Khalid’s ‘Location’.
Girl Collection EP is available here via Bandcamp
