Pinkpenny Promo

Earlier this month I passed an important milestone (well, important to me at least): I received my first slice promotional music.

Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that I didn’t start this blog, or DJing for that matter, to get free music. I started DJing because I wanted to listen to good music at the parties/clubs I attended. I wish I could say that at all charitable, that it was about sharing great music and giving my friends and fellow party-goers a good time, but no, it is entirely selfish – I quite simply could not stand what was being played and decided that if I wanted to hear anything else, I was the one who was going to have to play it. One can only listen to so much Great Big Sea before one yearns for fiddle-free music. I started this blog as simply a vehicle for my mixes. I wanted people to listen to what I was doing and so set up this site as a place to host online links to my mix archive and announce any live gigs that I might be doing. Since I started it, it’s taken on a bit of a life of its own with editorial content largely consisting of record reviews. Records I bought myself, I might add. It does what it was intended to do, I suppose; it lets those who care know what’s happening with my DJ “career” (a term I use ever-so loosely), but it has never lead to any paying gigs or promotional swag. That is until now.

Pinkpenny records is a net label based in Devon, UK. They sent me, and presumably others, links to two mixes of “You Know Where Your Going” [sic] by TC, a remix by Mr.Vinyl and the original mix. The original is a downbeat track best described as “chilled”. It consists largely of a synthesized saxophone over a warbling synth, melodic washes and a nice stand-up bassline. The original is good; I’ve played it for a few people and it got their heads nodding to the groove. Definitely worth a download.

The Mr. Vinyl remix is an up-tempo version of the original. Mr. Vinyl has dispensed with the saxo-synth, augmented a staccato piano riff, thrown in a gated copy of the synth wash for drama and replaced the stand-up bass with a typical, bouncing, progressive bassline to give the track a bit of thump. As in the case of the original, this mix is effective; good but not great. Competent is actually the word that leaps to mind.

Overall, I think the original works marginally better as a track that the remix, but I’d certainly play both if only they were on vinyl. If only. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, though. Digital promos are better than no promos at all.