My latest remix and another to add to my international repertoire, taking the folk music-styled original version of "You Will Return", by Quantic feat Alice Russell, and giving it a little Deep House mixed with a some Afrobeat and percussive elements, that ultimately makes you want to dance (hopefully) as well as taking it back to the Motherland.
I definitely feel it's on some spiritual type of vibe, so I hope you enjoy as well as the rest of the tracks featured on the dope LaPlata project, which was released on 8 September, 2014 by Tru Thoughts Records (UK). Big up to Robert Luis for even finding me on Soundcloud to offer me this wonderful collab opportunity :)
Get your copy today! http://shop.etchshop.co.uk/releases/TRUDD119/trudd119-la-plata-feat-nidia-gongora/844 (also available on iTunes and Amazon.com)
Ahmed
P.S.-- PRODUCTION NOTES
I normally just take the a cappella that an artist or label gives me and compose new music completely around it, but I did like a number of elements in the original that I thought I could reinterpret. Because I heard more percussion in my mind (and Afrobeat as an idea), I felt I could use the original folksy guitar that could also double as what African electric guitars would do. As I love strings (especially real vs. via keys) I wanted to use some of that in specific places that could highlight areas I wanted them to. And I could have easily played my own bass line, but I liked the depth/sound of the original but edited it to move the way I wanted it to be played. I also added a few EQ effects for Alice Russell's vocals at certain parts including layering her pre-chorus verse ("So tell me did you love...", which I REALLY love, by the way) over the hook ("You will return, you will return..."); her voice was SO wonderful to listen to while producing this!
As seems to be one of my signature moves, I used that standard Logic Pro pad I like to use and played that in the background, which sounds like a harmonic choir of "ooohs" (I need to count how many songs I've actually used that in lol). All the drum programming and percussion are new elements and it took a lot of editing to get it just how I wanted it. Oh, and if you're wondering what's being said/sung at the end by the African singers, in the African tongue, it's "O se baba", which is Yoruba (i.e. a Nigerian dialect) for "Thank you, father". Since Afrobeat was made popular in that country (especially via Fela Kuti), it only seemed appropriate to have that in there. And then I did the final mix but left the mastering to the label.
And that's pretty much how that was done :)
ellievsbear
