Under your spell ft Chaka Khan (The Remixes)
2018
Under your spell ft Chaka Khan (The Remixes)
The original is a dreamy, lush and soulful affair. Chaka’s distinctive voice is draped in funky bass guitar, horns, strings and rhythm guitar, evoking Chaka’s ’70s heyday while giving over to a modern sheen. The remixes rightfully capitalize on this and send the song spinning in different directions.
Auro
Auro’s remix takes us into ’80s dance heaven with a remix heavy on floor-vibrating synths and smile-inducing keys that make Chaka’s reverberating vocals float like a cloud.
Tieks
Tieks, meanwhile, offers us a scorching hot electro-house take that relies on synth bass, looped strings, hazy synths and almost-tribal drums to make us want to get down on the dance floor.
Moods
Moods delves deeper into the funk and jazz roots of the song, with a sticky bass guitar groove and jazzy keys anchoring the track as he mixes and loops Chaka’s vocals as if they were another instrument in his repertoire.
Dani Hageman
Last but not least is Dani Hageman, who perhaps delivers the most straightforward house groove. Lacing things with a four-on-the-floor rhythm, he infuses his remix with a club-rattling bass, incorporating some of the more charming elements from the original along with Chaka’s vocal to make the song sing anew.
You can’t really lose with Stephen Emmer, Chaka Khan and each of these remixers operating at the top of their game. Check out the “Under Your Spell” Remixes on Spotify and, if you haven’t already, pick up Home Ground for even more gems from Stephen and his friends.
[Courtesy of Soul Bounce]
Tracklist
Featuring
Lyrics
Stephen Emmer, Glenn Gregory, Ursula Rucker and Chaka Khan
Mixing
Bob Power (New York, USA)
Additional mixing
Stephen Emmer and Lau Kagenaar (Amsterdam, NL)
Mastering
Chris Gehringer @ Sterling Sound (New York, USA)
Vinyl mastering by Mark Wilder @ Battery Studio’s (New York, USA)
Production
Executive producer: Joe d’Ambrosio
Associate producer: Lau Kagenaar
Pre-production and recording by Stephen Emmer and Lau Kagenaar at Stephen Emmer Studios (Amsterdam & Hilversum, NL)
Additional recording
Paul Power @ Power Sound Studio (Amsterdam, NL)
Ronald Prent and Fieke van den Hurk @ Wisseloord Studios (Hilversum, NL)
Bill Lefler @ BL Studios (Los Angeles, USA)
Michael Freeman @ CRC Studios (Chicago, USA)
Roy Hendrickson @ Avatar Studios (New York, USA)
Lawrence Manchester @ Milk Boy Studios (Philadelphia, USA)
Additional recording @ The Village Recorder Studio (Los Angeles, USA)
Additional recording @ Abbey Road Studios (London, UK)
Rob Macomber @ Jazz Lincoln Centre (New York, USA)
Musicians
Piano: Stephen Emmer, John Beasley and Lau Kagenaar
Drums: Yoran Vroom, Martijn Bosman and Joost Kroon
Drum: programming: Stephen Emmer
Percussion: Jeroen de Rijk
Electric Bass: Stephen Emmer
Double Bass: Hein Offermans
Acoustic & Electric Guitars: Stephen Emmer
Keyboards: Stephen Emmer
Vibraphone & Glockenspiel: Murk Jiskoot
Horns: Tom Beek, Matthias Konrad, Martijn de Laat, Bert Pfeiffer and Robbert Scherpenisse
Strings: Vera van der Bie, Marieke de Bruijn, Ian de Jong, Merel Jonker, Eilidh Martin, Ben Mathot, Isabella Petersen, Jasper van Rosmalen, Jan Willem Troost and Alex Welch
Backing vocals: Judith Petra, Denise van Donselaar, Ivar Vermeulen, Laurens Kagenaar and Shirma Rouse
Remixes
Remixes by Moods, Tieks, Auro and Dani Hageman
Other
Project coordination: Maarten Bousie and Connie Kemp