Four mixes of the same track... great. With a few notable exceptions, like J. G. Thirlwell’s monster mashings of Nine Inch Nails’ tracks, I’ll freely admit that I’m not really all that big on remixes. Unfortunately, I can’t really pinpoint why I’m not keen, either, other than that all too often they either strip the essence of the song and take out whatever it was that made it good in the first place, or otherwise aren’t nearly different enough, in which case listening to the same song with only minor variations several times in succession becomes immensely tedious.
Oh yes, and because I truly believe in the adage ‘you can’t polish a turd.’ And so to Yo Majesty’s slick funky stylings...
The Radio Edit (Clean) is smooth and largely forgettable, a polished but bland disco production which includes a rap break that’s been a feature of countless records over the course of the last fifteen years. Blah blah blah.
DJ NG’s clean radio edit is drummier. In fact, it’s mostly drum and vocal, and while the funky bass bumpings of the regular radio edit didn’t exactly grab me, if I had been digging its rump-shaking groove, I’d be disappointed with this version.
So what about the Greenmoney Mix? Well, it opens with a bongo frenzy and certainly brings the bass back, but overall it still sounds a little thin. I’m also beginning to weary of the terribly pointless lyrics about ‘letting the music set you free’ and ‘shaking your body’ and all the rest. The couplet ‘he’s a freak / between the sheets’ may have raised a smirk had I not been growing so very bored.
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The A1 Bassline Edit initially sees the bass replaced by a plinkety-plonk chiming synth sound, which seems to me to defeat the object. There are some nice blips and tweaks, and then... well, then be bass really does kick in, a pulsating subsonic squelch. Alas, in real terms it’s still pretty standard ‘Dance Anthems’ material, but is the best version of the track by far – perhaps the removal of much of the vocals was a smart move.
Ultimately, ‘Don’t Let Go’ is as mundane as it gets, and throwing in a few expletives into the rap on the versions which aren’t ‘clean’ really doesn’t go any distance to changing that. I can’t say I’m too distressed that the Radio Slave and Batty Bassline remixes mentioned on the press release were absent from my CD.
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