Snowdune

Music by Sheffield / Rotherham musician Andy Trigg

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Remixes by Snowdune

I like to remix songs which inspire me creatively, particularly if I have free creative licence. Up to now I've never just "re"-mixed a song. I've been creative with structures, sometimes creating new intros or outros, created and played new parts, and produced them into something different but hopefully equally valid, whilst always respecting the original. I love the idea that songs, or pieces of music can exist in different forms, which can greatly widen potential audiences. With that in mind I've even applied my remix treatment to some of my own songs.

Wasted Time Remix

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Wasted Time is a catchy and driving poptastic song written by Danny Lowe, one of Sheffield’s most talented musicians. Danny put a rough version of this song on Youtube with a simple drum machine beat and a big bass guitar part with effects on it. I liked it straight away. Luckily he was happy to send me wavs of the bass and vocal track to play with.

I tried to use the original bassline but with all those effects and distortion on it was just too massive to tame covering every frequency and masking anything else I tried adding. So I decided to split the great bassline up into several layered synths covering different frequencies. I also created full percussion in midi, added various other keyboards, and did a little rearranging adding a few stops and a middle 8 instrumental section. The main guts of the song though remain Danny’s original melodies.

More songs by Danny Lowe

Check out more of Danny’s unique and wonderfully quirky songs here – Danny Lowe / Heads Off / Big Bad Wow /Rumpus

The (Red) Rain Pours Down on Me – Snowdune Remix

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When I first heard the original of this song by Rotherham band The Carnival Of Thieves I thought it had something magic about it. Very evocative, with great lyrics, story, and fantastic vocals by Aubrey Mirfin.

This is a love song set in 1944 Berlin during World War II between an English spy and a German girl. The original is just under 10 minutes long featuring great orchestration and a haunting piano part throughout as well as various instrumental sections. Although I loved it I could imagine a remix with the main haunting piano replaced by a more synth-type sound and focussed more like a single rather than the album piece it was at its current length.

I was sent around 27 audio tracks and a dozen midi, but in the end I stripped it right back and only used about 6 of them. I added and played several new parts including creating a new whistling section at the end based around the main vocal melody. I also changed certain notes and emphasis on original piano part to fit with the new main instrument. I moved things around and cut out large sections.

I also discovered a wonderful female vocal part (by Sunny Daye) which was used only once in the original and so quiet I never noticed it. I decided to feature this vocal as a chorus – or at least as a duet part with the main vocal.

The Lyrics

THE RAIN POURED DOWN ON ME

I met you under Berlin lilac trees
English Spy falls for Spandau queen
1944 and this war it never yields
Autumn leaves fall down gold & green

There’s danger on the German radio
As the rain it poured down on me
It’s crazy our dark hidden secret
But my love for you goes on and on

I kissed you but you seemed so uncertain
We talked by lanterns for hours in the twilight
I held your hand as we closed the curtains
As the bombs rained down all through the night

There’s danger on the German radio
As the rain it poured down on me
It’s crazy our souls in isolation
But your love for me goes on and on

I saw the rain as it bathed on your pretty face
I caught your eyes as they lit up the sky
Souls scream as the city burns to ash again
Sit in darkness as the sirens wail by

There’s danger on the German radio
As the rain it poured down on me
It’s crazy and it’s so uncertain
But this war it goes on and on

This Rain It Poured Down Again
A Holocaust yet unrevealed
Red Rains brought blood and flames
And a love dear to me

Jump Ararnd – Snowdune Remix

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My remix of Jump Ararnd by The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican and friends, a comedy band from Barnsley who do a lot for local charities. The song itself is a cover version and reinterpretation of a Hip Hop song from the 90s by House of Pain.

I originally intended to do a complete re-imagining of the song but two things stopped me. First, I wanted to respect the original musicians, some of whom are professional musicians who’ve had some great success. The second thing was I liked the original festival style, which I didn’t want to spoil.

I rearranged the track, shortening it by about 40 seconds, heavily remixed it taking lots of tracks or sections out and even moving parts played, from one section to another. I created a new 20 second intro, and a new ending, and played about 10 extra instruments and tracks including some slap bass and hip hop strings.

The original before the remix

Here’s the Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican’s version (feat. Maartin Allcock, Eliza Carthy, Mike Harding, Graham Oliver, Hugh Whitaker & The Doonitic Choir) Scott Doonican)

Hard Butter “Single” Mix

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Snowdune - Hard Butter "Single" Mix Hard Butter is another one of my solo dance tunes. It’s taken from my 8 minute dance instrumental Hard Butter which I’ve decided to cut up and make at least two different tracks from. This is the first. It’s essentially the first 3 minutes of the original extended version but completely reworked, and with completely new percussion, and lots of other new and changed bits. It’s also a remix of one of my own tracks.

The only samples I’ve used are a couple of percussion samples, and the sound effect in the opening bars, all other percussion, and all music I’ve created or played myself.

Here We Go Now – Ballroom / Spaghetti Western mix

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This is a reworking and remix of the quirky OK Cafe track by Mick Briers and me with lots of new bits and a complete remix. We removed all vocals apart from the “Here we go now” sections and created an almost “ballroom” remix that they could dance to on Strictly Come Dancing.

We thought an instrumental version of OK Cafe could be useful to be used for a voice over, advert or film so embarked on the project but ended up spending adding a lot more tracks. It’s fully orchestrated with a few weird instruments like sitar, and Jew’s Harp. Its got the following flavours mixed in – Ball room, Tango, Reggae, James Last, Ennio Morricone, Austin Powers, Beatles, 60s …

 

 

Hear the original

This is the original with lyrics and different instruments, OK Cafe was originally done by Me Mick and Bri Littlehales.