Positive Vibes: A chance for your favourite DJs to share their most inspiring, smile-inducing moments. This week… Spectrasoul’s Dave Kennett.
There was no coincidence in us calling up Spectrasoul for positive vibes this week. Their current string-soaked vocal roller Light In The Dark is a positive vibe waiting to happen. Emotion level set to spine-tingle hyperdrive, it’s one of their most touching tracks to date. Just check the video…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdDj_L2wfbM
“It’s nice to do something a bit different,” grins Dave. “It’s been well received, which is wicked. These days the whole bass music scene is open minded. The boundaries are much more blurred now. You can be more adventurous. We’ve always been pretty experimental anyway but it’s nice to know people are really interested to hear it and will listen with an open mind. It’s also great to be working with a vocalist like Terri.”
Like we discussed with Sabre a few months back, vocals tracks are a tricky mistress to master. As we all know: There’s a fine line between soft and sensitive and utter cheese.
“Ha! None of this ‘loving me baby baby’ stuff,” laughs Dave. “We had the original instrumental for a while and Terri came back with something we felt really comfortable with. It felt right! We’ve worked on other vocal tracks where the vocalist has given us something we can’t work with but if it’s not 100 per cent then it doesn’t get released. You’re only as good as your catalogue. You can’t release anything you’re not happy with. Simple as that.”
You can expect more startling sonic additions to their catalogue this year, including a full album. We’re not allowed to talk about that yet. Shucks, Dave’s not even sure if he can talk about the next single!
“I’m honestly not sure how much I can tell you,” he admits. “Let’s just say it’s something people might not expect from us! We’re really excited about it. All will be revealed soon!”
What a tease. In the meantime you can grab Light In The Dark here and check out Dave’s awesome trio of vibe positivity below…
Marlena Shaw – California Soul
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MMflNf-ocg
“Motown has been a massive influence on me since as long as I can remember. My mum would always blast it out on a Sunday morning and it’s just got so many great memories! This is one of my all-time favourites. We’ve played a few alternative sets and this always gets an incredible reaction. It’s got so much funk to it and it’s so soulful. It brings a smile to everyone’s face. A top feel good record with a lot of great memories attached.
“Affiliated memories always create positive vibes. It’s not a huge, huge Motown classic, just a big soul number. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell did a cover a few months after the original which was a big Motown hit but for me it’s the original; it makes me want to go back to the 60s, jump in a Mustang, put some Wayfarers on, put the top down and drive along the west coast. Amazing stuff.”
MJ Cole Feat Elisabeth Troy – Sincere
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-djtiU5RE&ob=av2e
“I had a hundred choices but this had to be in. It’s one of my all-time favourite pieces of music anyway – not just for positive vibes. It’s such a feel good track! I used to run a night years ago and this is one of those perfect memories. We booked MJ Cole and Elisabeth to do a live set and I was working on the door. I was really annoyed because I wanted to catch all the DJs playing. I remember being in the cloakroom or something equally boring and managed to get off for 10 minutes. I caught this track, it was perfect.
“It was in Egg Club so the vibe was really intimate and buzzing and it was just one of those proper clubbing moments. I loved the whole two-step thing anyway and this is one of the classiest, feel-good two-step tracks ever made. A lot of modern electronic music is over complicated and over produced but this is so simple – an amazing riff, a beautiful vocal, really stripped down basics, it all comes together and works. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say this really lifts me. I haven’t heard it in a club for a long time. I need to sort that out.”
Little Dragon – Constant Surprises
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmP2ULBJGYQ
“This final one was so hard to pick! I was going to go for a classic Jefferson Airplane one but I’ve already done the 60s so I’ll go a bit more modern. Me and Jack both love Little Dragon so I’m picking this. They’re not massive but they’re picking up some attention, through work with people like SBTRKT, which is great. They really deserve it.
“This is from their first album. I love the concept of it; the surprises that pop up in her life day to day and how those surprises affect her decisions. It makes me wonder when I last had a proper surprise. It’s been a while! Surprises are very much a childhood thing – unfortunately when you get older you don’t get them so much. So it’s a cool way to relive that childhood experience. If you haven’t heard this yet then you really need to – so many positive vibes!”
