On 9th July Crosstown Rebels will release ‘TTOE Remixes #3’ – the third in a trio of EPs featuring reworks from Krust’s lauded masterpiece ‘The Edge Of Everything’. The selection of top-drawer artists delighted to rub shoulders with the revered master now adds UNKLE, Hodge and DJ Nature to a list that has seen Masters At Work, Four Tet, Damian Lazarus, Batu, Calibre, LCY and Flynn all deliver inspired versions. Following ‘TTOE Remixes #3’ EP, the full set of reworks will be released on 6th August via Crosstown Rebels as an album called ‘The Edge Of Everything – Remixed’.
Linking back to a shared history that saw Krust (alongside Roni Size) remix DJ Krush’s ‘Dig This Vibe’ and also provide their own track ‘Tribetoon’ for the seminal ‘Headz 2’ compilation, both on James Lavelle’s label Mo’Wax, now the influential DJ/producer/A&R delivers arguably his best ever work under the UNKLE alias, with deep breakbeat goodness that’s both classic and perfectly now.
A sonic son of Krust, fellow Bristolian Hodge works ‘Constructive Ambiguity’ into a proggy new school breaks monster that carves the original’s metallic bass into sharp new shapes, whilst sparkling like melodic stars is Four Tet’s take on ‘Negative Returns’, which packs a deceptively heavy punch, maintaining the original’s hurtling velocity, fuelled by a huge sub-bass engine.
In an exchange that reaches back to 1997, Krust sampled Masters At Work alias Nuyorican Soul’s ‘Nautilus (Mawtilus)’/‘Mind Fluid’ on his game-changing single ‘Soul In Motion’. This was reciprocated in 1998 by Nuyorican Soul’s remix of ‘Watching Windows’ by Reprazent, of which Krust was a key member. Here the duo individually known as Kenny ”Dope” Gonzalez and Little Louie Vega deliver pure audiophile euphony, somewhere between broken beat, real house, cosmic acid and future jazz funk.
A rugged halftime head-nodder (which again brings things full circle) is by Krust’s brother Flynn – a fellow member of 1989 ‘Wishing On A Star’ hitmakers Fresh 4 alongside Krust, and also a jungle legend in his own right, as half of veteran duo Flynn & Flora. More West Country royalty comes from Wild Bunch founder Milo Johnson AKA DJ Nature’s wigged-out Martian house by way of New York – which, in another of Krust’s many thematic circles – echoes the Latin-tinged, blunted science of Nu Yorican Soul’s ‘Mind Fluid’ and ‘The Nervous Track’.
Crosstown Rebels boss Damian Lazarus maintains Krust’s epic adventure narrative, retelling the tale in his own words, taking recognisable parts from the original and transposing them into a groovy cosmic house odyssey, whilst Calibre turns ‘It’s A Lot’ into a warm, glowing two-step roller with serrated analogue bass and masterful musicality befitting his classical training.
The spiralling beat-and-bass science of Batu’s version takes ‘Space Oddity’ and deconstructs it like a cubist portrait, matching Krust himself in pure outside-the-box original expression.
Rising new school leader LCY is clearly a kindred spirit too, rivalling Krust with their future-facing breakbeat science that’s equally as compelling and inventive as the original.
With such inspiring source material, it’s unsurprising that all of the remixers have brought their best game to this impeccable collection.
Praise for ‘The Edge Of Everything’:
Best Albums and Tracks of 2020 The Guardian
Top 10 Albums of 2020 Crack – staff picks
Best Electronic Albums of 2020 Bandcamp
Albums of the Year 2020 The Arts Desk
20 Best Albums of 2020 UKF
30 Best Albums of 2020 Magnetic
Best Electronic Albums of 2020 Attack
“The drum’n’bass innovator blurs the edges of the genre, putting masterful sound design and playful pacing in the service of cinematic aims” Pitchfork
“Thompson wrestles new innovations from his productions while using his music as a conduit to touch the very depths and heights of human feeling” The Wire
“A stunning comeback from a drum & bass luminary” Resident Advisor
“Stunning” DJ Mag
“A dense, dystopian epic” NPR
“A hugely ambitious techno-futurist symphony sprinkled with nods to Kabbalah, Hegel, Scorsese and Kubrick” Uncut
“Something completely new and unique” Faze
“Standout music of depth and substance” XLR8R
“A future focussed, synth heavy, sci-fi opus that hits a celestial climax” Mojo
“Pushing menacing beats into film noir atmospherics for a jilted generation. An interstellar space jam of hypnotic frequencies that roll onto infinity” Loud and Quiet
