A benevolent bit of brilliant bebop and boogie-woogie.
It’s a worry when you get a single with six mixes of the same song on it, I discovered this after purchasing Michael Jackson’s ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ a few years ago. Pretty much all the same but with a few extended intros here and there; boring and repetitive and unfortunately it detracts from the strength of the actual song.
We’re not asking for a Richard D. James remix here, although always intriguing, the original song is no longer recognisable. Us3 have very nearly got it just right. They may not care about us, Jacko, but I expect they care about Us3!
First impressions as the Soul Mix radio edit of ‘Cantaloop 2004’ starts is that it would perfectly suit a seventies cop flick or something like Pam Grier’s ‘Coffy’ with Chris Storr’s trumpet providing that sexy, bordering on seedy vibe. Reggi Wyns rap comes in and it’s all cool, baby. This is jazzy and funky, groovy and seductively easy hip-hop (Andre 3000esque.) So laid back, it’s horizontal. It’ll make you want to move, but not too much, because you’re chilled.
The other mixes are pretty neat, El Barrio’s at number two, Mike Gorman’s keyboards are seeing some more action here and Ed Jones’ flute adds a rampantly reassuring jig. J Rawls from Lone Catalysts appears next and strips this song down, transforming it into a subtle delight, with smooth-as-you-like backing vocals and some ice-cold keys.
Waajeed of Bling47 takes the helm on the fourth track, kicking it off with a major fat bass bounce, more like some classic Dr. Dre hip-hop than the other predominantly soul mixes, even a bit of Grandmaster Flash in there. Still this one’s a benevolent bit of brilliant bebop and boogie-woogie with it’s sexed up sax and the gentlemanly, ballroom introduction.
Five and six are less essential to the single, being the longer album version and the Soul Mix INST. The two songs add up to ten minutes and two seconds and could possibly be too much for some lesser-devoted listeners, bringing the whole single to a whopping 26 minutes and 37 seconds.
Despite this, the music is damn cool. Music to make love to on a sunny Sunday afternoon (“with Cecilia, up in my bedroom.”) They’re certainly similar in sound to, and definitely as good as The Roots, so check out this single, every mix on it contains a special part that will inspire you to make that shuddery noise found on Public Enemy’s ‘Don’t Believe The Hype.’ "Mwahh-ah-ha-ah-ah," you’ll be going! The only small problem is it’s like the Daft Punk song; ‘Too Long.’