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Sure to make an enduring impression on house devotees worldwide, Whatcha Gonna Do is the latest release from Baltimore VIP Teddy Douglas. Harnessing the charismatic voice of Margaret Grace from Quentin Harris’ 2008 groover My Joy and with a 10 track remix package released on Defected’s Code Red, this one looks like it may have some legs.
The main mix on the package comes from Claude Monnet & Torre, nestling snugly in the deep house genre. Slow and sexy, the beats lap at the ankles of the powerful Grace vocal. With a heavy padded drum, gentle chimes and throbbing riff, the track builds on its simple beginnings to mature into a gorgeous drawn out forward-thinking house number. The generous serving of Monnet & Torre’s Reprise remix is a touch less ruthless and leads in with purely the vocal element in a lush reflective interlude for a nice change of pace.
San Fran house bastions David Harness and Chris Lum shake the track up under their Harlum guise with some powerful spicy Afro/Latin rhythms, metallic percussion and prominent strumming guitar. In addition the pair supplies the obligatory dub edit which focuses on the beats before the eminent DJ Spen provides the most attention-grabbing remix.
Spen’s Wild West Vocal edit pitches up into hollow steel drums, continuing the Afrobeat theme of Harlum’s effort. As the name suggests, Spen goes all Ennio Morricone and spices up the joint spaghetti western styley with a wobbling electric guitar riff. Dropping in some wild laser stabs and a heavy electrohouse bassline, this edit really stands out and of course comes in both dub and acoustic reworks for good measure. Not content with a hat trick, Spen also affords a straight up funky piano house edit with the Muthafunkaz crew for the more sombre listener.
The boon of this sturdy release is the inclusion of three very individual variations on the original which exhibit an expansive range of house sounds. Taking it one step further, each varied edit is subsequently stripped down to emphasise a different element of its structure. There are dub versions, DJ friendly beats tools and acoustic/reprise cuts to make the track workable in a whole range of environments. Cleverly bringing together influences from world music as well as traditional house, Whatcha Gonna Do is another refined soulful house release from an experienced stable.
10 cuts of unadulterated soul food from the Code Red imprint – kick back and enjoy each and every one…
