Flowers 12"

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Surely everyone is by now familiar with Sweet Female Attitude's fabulously slushy 2-step anthem, the incomparable 'Flowers'. Suffice it to say that, when this tune is played out in four or five years' time, mass hysteria will be the likely result. What is more interesting about this major label re-release is the track's additional versioning by original remixer Sunship, assisted by hitherto unknowns (to me anyway) Chunky and Shado Kane. Taking the bold step of recreating the winter's most upbeat underground hit for a different headspace altogether, the production team have eschewed the original's lush melodism and fuzzy, live-sounding bass in favour of icy filtered keyboards and a stalking, 'LFO'-style b-line. The affirmative phrases of the original thereby become tainted with an eerie dreadfulness, the line 'I'll bring you flowers' seeming to morph from a straightforward expression of devotion into a presentiment of the grave. The 12" also features a 4/4 remix by Wackside: while surprisingly listenable for commercial house, it's as nothing compared to Sunship and Chunky's marvellous demonstration of what remixing is all about.