As he shares his rapturous new rework of Justice and RIMON’s classic “Afterimage”, revered UK producer Laurence Guy talks through his favourite remixes.
The remix is a sonic device of increasing worth — just ask Laurence Guy. “I love the art of remixing and I think it’s such an integral part of dance music culture,” the much acclaimed UK producer tells Wonderland. “Many people are introduced to dance music or underground scenes via remixes of major hits, etc. Back in the day I used buy CD singles from HMV and I always found myself drawn to the remixes more than the tracks I bought the CD for…these remixes were a huge factor in pushing me towards what became a life long obsession with electronic music.”
Guy is a virtuoso of musical reinterpretations. He has long been a respected name in dance and house music, played some of the biggest stages across the world — from Glasto to L’Olympia — and has shared two critically lauded albums of his own. His latest musical modification comes in the shape of “Afterimage”, his refreshed vision on the Justice and RIMON immersive gem, with Guy bringing effortless grooves and colourful vitality to the cut.
In a special Wonderland exclusive, Guy talks through his personal favourite remixes in his back catalogue — some released, and some that are yet to be public knowledge…
“Justice – Afterimage”
This was such a huuuuge honour to be asked as I’ve been a Justice/Ed Banger fanboy since I was a teenager. I definitely felt the stress on this one and went through a bunch of different versions before settling on the final….I still couldn’t quite get it so I called up my older brother (who, incidentally, was the one who introduced me to Justice originally) and we got in the studio together to finish it off. This was such a lovely full circle moment and I’m buzzing about the result.
Sofia Kourtesis – “Juntos”
To this day this is the remix I am most proud of from my catalogue. The original was so beautiful that the remix came together super quickly…I remember doing it a bit more freeform than usual and not really sticking to the grid so much on Ableton. I think I barely used any midi and everything was put together by chopping and processing audio, more like how I learned to produce when making drum n bass back int he day. Lot’s of those old tricks were used, like time-stretching, lot’s of minuscule edits inside every bar etc. I really love this one!
Model Man – “Don’t Cry”
As a massive fan of Model Man, this was another one that was a real pleasure to do. Similarly to the Sofia remix, this has a very UK flavour to it. I recently started playing this one out again, when the piano hits its pure euphoria on the dance floor.
Session Victim – “Needledrop“
To be asked to remix SV was such a huge honour to me….they are without doubt one of the biggest influences on my music and also some of the friendliest people I’ve met in the house music world. For this one I was going for a classic dance floor vibe, not stopped playing this one since it came out. Endless big ups to Matt and Hauke.
Otis Kane – “Dance With You”
This was such a fun one to work on….I was out in LA with my older brother working out of the Future Classic studios on a bunch of new music and we had a bit of time to kill pre-session. I’d been a little stuck on the remix but had a rough idea so I played it to my brother and we ended up getting in done about two hours later. Sometimes music needs to be a rush of feeling, like an explosion where you just hit the flow state until it’s done, that’s one of my favourite things about it tbh and this remix is now a beautiful time stamp of that trip to me.
Night Tapes – “Drifting”
Another recent one, I had the original on repeat for absolutely ages on a Spotify playlist, but I hadn’t really clocked who or what it was, so it was a buzz to get asked to remix it. At this time I was also heavily bumping a tune called “Rainbow” by ATRIP so this is an ode to both that track and the original “Drifting”.
Bonus Section
“It’s pretty common for releases not to materialise, sometimes the artist isn’t feeling the remix, sometimes (often) you just get ghosted by the label (usually the major labels), sometimes it doesn’t work with everyones schedule, sometimes you don’t deliver it in time and it’s totally your faulT, other times bands breakup or part ways with the A&R that commissioned you in the first place…there’s never a guarantee that your remix will ever see the light of day…
I don’t remember the exact circumstances on these remixes in particular, but here’s a selection of my favourite “lost” LG remixes.
I’m going to be uploading these exclusively for Wonderland readers into my Vault account so you can have a listen to them there by signing up.“
Rituals of Mine – “222”
This one will always remain really special to me, when I listened to the parts I instinctively honed in on this one phrase “I saw you straight in your face and I am overcome” and for whatever reason at the time that hit me like a tonne of bricks and I based the whole remix around that phrase. This something I really look for when deciding whether to accept a remix or not…is there something in there that speaks directly to me. Listening to it now I can also hear a big influence from DJ Koze’s remix of Mount Kimble’s “Made To Stray” in there as well. This is my favourite lost remix.
Kito ft. Aluna – “Alone With You“
I loved the original of this so much, at the time I hadn’t really made much “poppy” sounding music so it was a nice challenge to lean into that kinda sound with these parts. I ended up turning it into an oddball hyper pop kinda banger and every now and then I wistfully think about how it never came out whilst looking out of the window.
Joy Anonymous – “JOY (Not Sure What I’m Going Through)”
This was another super fun one to work on, as a massive fan of Joy A. I struggled a little to find my direction with this and in the end the only thing that made sense to me was to turn it into a liquid dab tune, which was a bit of a curveball. I still love it though and will end my sets with it occasionally.
Folamour – “Tribute To My Barber“
This was waaaay back in 2016 after me and Folamour had only had a couple releases respectively….I can’t remember anything about the process with this one tbh, apart from just going super deep/lofi as I was doing at the time, I remember the parts being really beautiful. This was due to come out on a Melbourne label called Kyoku records, ran by Jimmy & Milos, who were also the first people to book me in Melbourne, big up lads!
