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Tuesday 20 December 2022

Was That All It Was?

You might think that by 20th December the musical year was pretty much done and dusted but then late on Sunday night Sean Johnston, fresh from a night DJing at ALFOS at Phonox in London, decided to drop two new Hardway Bros remixes onto the internet. Sean's remixes are of an artist called Peak High (who I really hope does live in the High Peak). Peak High (Jim McCall) sent his cover of Was That All It Was to Sean, who offered to remix it, and we should all be glad he did as it's an absolute beauty. 

Was That All It Was was originally a slice of 1979 disco/ soul by Jean Carne, one of those pieces of happy/ sad dance music, dancefloor gold but with lyrics filled with regret and and the sharp pain of tears- 'Was that all it was/ A way to pass the time/ A momentary thing/ Not worth remembering in the morning'. Jean's version is all her vocal, disco synth drums, strings and late 70s pow pows. 

Was That All It Was

It was covered by Kym Mazelle in 1989, a house update of disco a decade on. Peak High's version is at Bandcamp along with Sean's pair of Hardway Bros remixes, a pay what you want deal. Peak High's take on the song is chuggy house with a huge bassline, rattling 808, synth stabs and a wonderful vocal from Don Gomez.

Sean turned in two remixes, one a disco synth drum extravaganza with a throbbing Patrick Cowley- esque bassline, eight minutes of ecstatic abandon. The second, the Bleep Dub, sends the song via the Snake Pass to Sheffield in 1990, a Warp-ed/ bleep techno version that is nine and a half minutes of dark dancefloor delight. Both are great. 

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