Morcheeba have released Escape The Chaos in 2025, inviting remixes from Paula Tape, Frazer Ray, and Brother Counsell to transform the trip-hop tracks into rave versions.
Brothers Counsell – Bleeding Out remix
What makes a good remix?
A successful remix finds new pockets and sounds that were not obvious on the first listen. It unpacks the original to show new instincts and decisions. The goal is to make the listener smile, proving the remixer understood what made the track special.
What gear was crucial to your remix of Bleeding Out?
For the vocal chops and stutters, I added Echoboy and Logic Pro’s stock reverb to Skye Edwards’ vocals. I then chopped them up in Logic Pro’s Quick Sampler. After selecting a rhythm that fit the song, I added saturation and sent the signal to Soundtoys Little AlterBoy and Waves H-Delay. The AlterBoy shifted the vocal an octave up. This, combined with the delay and some automation, allows the vocal chops to sparkle in and out with the main body of the track.
What are some tips you have for remixing non-club music into club-ready tracks?
The biggest tip is to jump in and react to the parts you have available. Instinct first, serious later. Enjoy finding the pocket and groove that falls out of the stems first. Then, once you have that element, you start building a world that could land in a club.
The sound of Morcheeba is defined by different instrumental backdrops behind Skye’s voice. You kept her vocals mostly intact. How did you make the backdrop in the remix?
The instrumentation of the original had rich layers that felt ripe to peel apart and reuse. Skye’s vocals made up a large part of the backdrop: chopped, stretched, and resampled. That became layers that sat under most of the remix, allowing the original vocal plenty of space to cut through.
The very first keys on the original were re-sampled and became the pulsing sound of the intro. There are also little artefacts and sounds from the original that were cut and stretched and run through reverb and delays to add depth and movement. All of the instrumentation, aside from the drums and bass, came from recycling the original song.
Frazer Ray – Pareidolia remix
What makes a good remix?
A good remix reinvents the original. Whether that is changing the genre, focusing on a subtle element and turning it into a hook, or completely mangling the entire thing. You have to really pay respect to the original music, too. Pick out the bits of magic and try to maintain that message in your rework.
What gear was crucial to your remix of Pareidolia?
A big part of my current sound is from analogue summing. I got my grail piece a couple of years ago: the TL Audio Fat Track. Once I finish mixing a track, I bounce it into four stems, then run them super hot through this tube mixer. The sound of this unit is mad. It separates stuff and saturates each element really musically. Then I run them through one more tube to sum them together.
What are some tips you have for remixing non-club music into club-ready tracks?
When you get a remix, usually you get a ton of stems. I really enjoy listening to each stem to see if I can pick out a particular moment or previously more subtle element that can be turned into something new. It takes a while, but it is worth it. Once I find those moments, I will drag them into new channels to make a collage out of these sounds.
Another tip is to submit two remixes in demo form to the label initially. For someone like me who writes a lot of UK club styles, I have had remixes turned down by labels expecting a garage remix, jungle remix, or breaks remix. So send them two demos and ask which one feels right for them. This stops you from investing too much time in an idea that is not right. My other demo for this remix was a super-melodic liquid/jungle thing. Very early 2000s inspired, and not really a sound I have played with much before.
The most pronounced new element of your remix is the club beat. How did you build the instrumental backdrop around it? Was it all audio from the original song? Did you create any new sounds?
The remix is pretty stripped. I initially overloaded it with tons of elements, but as I started to work with the vocal and the reese, I realised I wanted them to be the focal point and create a more euphoric 90s vibe.
All the vocals and melodic elements are from the stems. The drums are a painstakingly reworked break from one of the countless 90s sample packs I have bought over the years. The reese was created in Serum 2, and the various FX and dubbier sounds are from my Eurorack and VCV Rack.
Paula Tape – We Live And Die remix
What makes a good remix?
Reinterpretation is all about understanding the target and the context you want to achieve, such as the genre, BPM, and overall mood. It is also important to decide whether you want to preserve the emotional core of the original by keeping elements like the vocals, harmonies, or key melodic parts.
Finding the strongest hook from the original and approaching the remix with a clear vision gives the track direction and purpose. The key is to strike a balance between familiarity and innovation, allowing listeners to recognise the essence of the original while introducing a fresh perspective that makes the new version distinctly your own.
What gear was crucial to your remix of We Live And Die?
For this remix, I used Juno-106, resampled and filtered the original bass and made the drums on an Akai S900 with mainly TR-909 drums and real drum samples.
What are some tips you have for remixing non-club music into club-ready tracks? How did you make it work on this remix?
The first and most important step is understanding the key of the original track. Once I know that, I can work more freely and decide how to reshape the rhythm, harmony, and overall structure. When remixing music that is not originally intended for clubs, it is essential to identify the right vocal phrases to use as a consistent hook throughout the track.
Apart from the vocals, it doesn’t sound like anything from the main 4/4 beat was drawn from the original song. How did you make that part of your remix?
In the chorus, I enhanced and filtered the original bass, giving it a more upbeat character to build tension that eventually explodes into a climax of drums and cymbals. I also incorporated the original violin parts, while all of the drum programming was created using my own custom kits.
What it means
These producers approach the stems differently. Brother Counsell strips the vocals to create new rhythmic textures. Frazer Ray focuses on saturation and summing to add weight. Paula Tape looks at the key and melody to rebuild the harmony. The common thread is listening to the original parts closely before adding new elements.
