Leroy Burgess has received much critical acclaim for his latest project, and so the acclaim will continue to mount as he rel;eases this massive single of remixes of "It's The Weekend". One of the cream tracks from the album, I was wondering what we would be presented with here. I usually despair at many remixes - you know what I mean...they usually destroy the aura of the original, but thankfully the various mix-masters here have done nothing to destroy or blot the copybook of the original song. They have nicely complimented it, and as such the single comes very highly recommended! The first mix by Jonny Montana and Craig Stewart does not fail to use Leroy's unique, easily recogniseable voice as a strong point and the beats are strong and the goodtimes vibe reminiscent of the Great man's work with Salsoul many moons ago. Strong piano led and underpinned by a bassline that's groovier than the original, this song fails not to impress. The freaky synths nearing the close of the track add much flavour from "Barely Breaking Even" and it's THAT vibe that takes us out, and who can fail to be impressed by the strong Salsoul 2010 vibe here? It's nothing short of superb, that's what it is.The Patchworks remix adds a really Deep House groove vibe and jazzy guitar adds even more brilliance. Leroy, as I have said before, has straddled many different genres over the past 30-plus years and is equally at home on a disco groove, a soul groove or a house groove. This remix by Patchworks is just like the amazing soulful disco-house coming out of America at the moment...at least in the dance music field our American Cousins are reinventing the groove and mixing hard house beats, ethereal deep house synths with real instruments. strings, guitars and funky basslines. The man, of course suits all of this, and so the remix stands alone as a great song. Rob Hardt, of Cool Million and Seductive Souls fame, has supplied the third and final remix here and it's a slamming, spaced out affair which relies on strong piano and a house groove, drizzled with an 80s party-time groove. This has a slight flavour of a Joey Negro early 90s piece - think "Universe Of Love" and you're not far off the mark. The remixes are so different, the beats vary and flavours are definitely separate, yet Mr. Burgess' vocals and lyrics are symbiotic with each one in turn. This is a shining example of talents both vocally and production-wise and hats off to all three of our mixing partners in this slamming example of contemporary - yet classic - soulful dance music. Thank God for all concerned, and let's have much more of this in the future!
Barry Towler,
The Vibe Scribe
