Alice in Jamaica !!

Tru Thoughts loved this fanblog, they even used to say it was "better than the official site". Thankfully, the Tru-Thoughts website (tru-thoughts.co.uk) has been re-designed and is now quite the best I must admit. Hopefully, I've now started to integrate in this site (tru-thoughts.net) more content, announcing shows in Paris in collaboration with Paris DJs and 3eme Voie, adding new artists and labels in the scene musical universe as Brighton's finest...

The connection goes now even deeper now... Last year while legendary Studio One deejay The Lone Ranger (rangerstyle.com) was at TIMEC's studios in Paris, I had him listen to many new releases, I order to produce some cool bootlegs together. The Jamaican rub-a-dub master agreed immediatly to the idea, saying "we've been doing bootlegs in Jamaica for 30 years!"... The artist that knocked his ears was Alice Russell, of course: he loved "Humankind" and wanted to play around with this track.

French reggae dubmeister Grant Phabao (grantphabao.com) took the acapella from the 12 inch, built a new riddim just for it, while The Lone Ranger checked the lyrics in order to write a few new verses that wouldbe replying to Alice's ones. A few days later, the night before going back to Jamaica was the one, and Phabao and Ranger recorded their "Tuff n'Uff Skank" remix of Alice Russell's "Humankind"...

Rob Luis (A&R for Tru Thoughts) and TM Juke (producer of the original version of the track) loved it right away and soon started asking to release it themselves.... We were thrilled by the idea and started thinking of an "Alice In Jamaica" concept of bringing more Alice Russell songs into pure roots reggae territories.

Grant Phabao picked into my Tru Thoughts vinyls and found out more Alice Russell acapellas were available. Bim bam! Digitalized into WAV files, riddim-ized into skanking beats and one drop grooves, 3 more remixes happened quite fast.... The Tru Thoughts crew loved those too and I'm now please to announce they've scheduled an autumn release of those 4 Grant Phabao reggae remixes on a "Shapes EP" 12 inch and on a "Shapes compilation" CD! Can't wait to get your feedback on those...
Djouls (TIMEC/Paris DJs)

The remixes are :
• Alice Russell - Humankind (Grant Phabao tuff 'n uff skank starring The Lone Ranger)
• The Quantic Soul Orchestra feat. Alice Russell - Pushin' On (Grant Phabao remix)
• Nostalgia 77 feat. Alice Russell - Seven Nation Army (Grant Phabao remix)
• Alice Russell - Fly In The Hand (Grant Phabao remix)