Forty Five Minutes Of Hardway Bros Remixes

After A Love From Outer Space at the Golden Lion in Todmorden last night and yesterday's ALFOS post I thought Sean Johnston in Hardway Bros mode would be a good subject for a Sunday mix. I first attempted it weeks ago but for some reason lost the mix- the lost mix is always the best version. Then, trying again more recently, I tried to bite off more than I could chew, including remixes old and new and some of Hardway Bros original music, while trying to keep it around forty five minutes (much of Sean's music, remixes and original, comes in at ten minutes long). I went back to the drawing board, decided to only use remixes this time around and sling together a bag of cosmic chug, house/ disco/ dub and indie- dance- there's a transition in this which is a bit untidy but I've left it as it is. There are so many more remixes that could have been included here. Something to come back to at a future date. 

Forty Five Minutes Of Hardway Bros Remixes

• The Secret Soul Society x Hardway Bros: Yo We've Landed (Hardway Bros Remix Redux)
• Islandman: Godless Ceremony (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Marshall Watson and Cole Odin: Just A Daydream Away (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Out Cold: Lovin' Arms (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Peak High: Was That All It Was (Hardway Bros Remix)
• Aimes: A Star... In The Sky (Hardway Bros Remix)

The Secret Soul Society Yo We've Landed came out in 2021, one of many remixes Sean did that year, Secret Soul's Cal Gibson's head spinning psychedelia bent into disco- dub shapes. 

Islandman's Godless Ceremony came out earlier this year, psychedelic Turkish folk/ dance music turned into wobbly, chiming indie- dance. 

Marshall Watson and Cole Odin's Just A Daydream Away came out just a few weeks ago, another slice of indie- dance Hardway remix heaven. 

Out Cold's Lovin' Arms came out back in 2013. Out Cold is Simon Aldred who was also Cherry Ghost. When I posted this remix about a decade ago Sean saw the post and said he'd forgotten he'd even done the remix. Classic house sound and feel on this one. 

Peak High's cover of the Jean Carne's disco classic Was That All It Was came out at the tail end of last year and I played it and both of Sean's remixes to death including on a car journey at Christmas where my daughter Eliza said she'd heard it, all three versions, so much she never wanted to hear it again. 

Aimes' A Star... In The Sky was a 2020 release about which I know very little other than it came out on 12" and Sean's remix kicks like a mule- dark, spaced out cosmic techno. 

Godless Ceremony

Islandman, a trio from Istanbul led by DJ and producer Tolga Boyuk, make music from an intersection of electronic/ dance  and Turkish folk, a melange of drums, percussion, chanting, flutes, strings, jazz, North Africa and whatever else they feel ready to throw into the pot. The latest release from them is a three track remix EP, the new versions coming courtesy of the hardest working man in cosmic chug, Sean Johnston. 

Following his remixes of Holy Youth Movement that hit an early 90s indie/ dance sweet spot, the three Hardway Bros remixes here  mine that seam even further, a blast of pure indie/ dance gold. The Hardway Bros remix kicks in with shimmering guitars, a wobbling synth part and a rhythm that sets the controls for the heart of the chug, with multi- tracked, blissed out vocals riding on top of seven minutes of sun dappled fun.

The Live at The SSL Dub opens with the same chiming guitar part but the bass and drums shift it somewhere else a little deeper and darker, the undertow of bass and FX churning away with the vocals ever more distant, with more and more echo.