Compiled & Edited By Greg Wilson For Tirk Records 2018
It’s the best part of a decade since the last Credit To The Edit album was released back in 2009, so it was unexpected when Tirk contacted me to ask if I was up for compiling a third volume. Though the name has been retained for curated DJ line-ups both in clubs and at festivals, the possibility of another album, given the ever-increasing distance from the last, just hadn’t occurred to me. However, when I thought of all the tracks I’d re-edited, reworked or remixed in the meantime, I realised I had a surplus of top-notch material to draw from for volume 3.
The previous volumes’ extensive sleevenotes go into depth with regards to my thoughts on re-editing, and the scene that has grown around it, so, to save going over the same ground, you can access online via the Credit To The Edit section on my hub page:
www.gregwilson.co.uk
In the 9 years since volume 2, the re-edits movement, rather than dying down has continued to grow ever-stronger, very much becoming a staple of contemporary dance culture and certainly the conduit for the continuing Disco renaissance, making countless original ‘70s / early-‘80s recordings suitably mixable for DJs now, and thus bringing back into play a whole era of music for a new generation still captivated by this classic epoch for dancefloor expression.
I’d only just set up my SoundCloud account in 2009, which would subsequently become the main online platform for me to share mixes and edits, registering close on 6 million plays to date. In those early SoundCloud days the edits community was much valued and played a key role in the platform’s growth. It became the home for a new wave of edit exponents, including Late Nite Tuff Guy, Psychemagik, Leftside Wobble, The Reflex, Fingerman, Luxxury and Dr Packer, who often enhanced the tracks they were working on with additional elements, bolstering the bottom end in the process – the term rework increasingly more relevant than re-edit, especially when the original multi-track stems were available, enabling, in effect, full remixes. Elsewhere, Todd Terje, who’d originally come to attention via his re-edits, made a successful switch to producing his own material – his major breakthrough coming via 2012’s ‘Inspector Norse’, now acknowledged as a modern club classic.
To have played a part in this recent evolution fulfils my personal criteria as a DJ, which is to draw from the past whilst informing the present. I was always cautious of nostalgia traps, where DJs fall into playing the old music in the old way, whereas this was about bringing new context to what was always great music, introducing it to a younger crowd, with the re-edits movement providing the perfect connection from then to now – my role as a ‘bridge-builder’ crystalizing as a consequence.
This album mainly consists of straight up old-style edits, where I’ve worked with the stereo tracks, extending, re-arranging and sometimes overdubbing. There are also some reworks / remixes where I’ve had the stems at my disposal and been able to bring into play additional instrumentation, courtesy of remix partner Peza on a couple of the tracks (Peza, along with Derek Kaye and Henry Greenwood, is responsible for numerous quality edits / reworks, and it’s these 3 DJs who’ve joined me for the Credit To The Edit parties during recent years).
I’d like to thank the artists and licensees who enabled this third volume to shape up so wonderfully. Also, of course, all at Tirk, my agent Matt Johnson (Matty J) at The Pool, Josh Ray who has helped me edit the text, and Sav Remzi, who instigated the series on approaching me to compile my original Credit To The Edit album back in 2005. Finally, to the many DJs and dancers whose support has been so crucial in enabling me to remain relevant after all these years, my ongoing appreciation. Hope you enjoy the collection of tracks I’ve chosen for this latest compilation.
Credit To The Edit Volume 3 publicity photograph by Nick Mizen
© Greg Wilson, 2018
