Chris Udoh Ready For You

I have known Chris Udoh for a long while. The first thing we did together was a remix of the track “It’s Not What” written by him and June Lopez as the (E)motion Detectors. That record came out on Gourmet Recordings in 2000. In 2014, Udoh sent me a new song entitled “Ready For You” asking if I’d want to remix it. I was drawn to what I heard as a fresh approach to the New Jersey swinging House sound. The simple chords, direct arrangement, and vocal chops made me think I could come up with my own version. I played new music for the remix using the bass line notation and chords from the original. I wrote new drums and percussion, decided to filter down the original vocals and added a snippet of the classic ‘Don’t hold back the feeling…’ vocal sample. I really wanted to created a depth of sonic detail to my version. I conceptualized three layers of sound intensity, selecting some symbols, bass, and vocals to be barely audible, a second louder layer of percussion, keys, and midrange heavy bass, and a third layer of keys and vocals that ride on top of everything else meant to be the focus when played on a club sound system. I think this kind of wide sonic palette allows different elements to be noticed in different listening environments and hopefully makes this version interesting to listen to many times over. “Ready For You” by Chris Udoh is available on Dubwise Records.