Sade’s heavenly voice, her band’s sublime arrangements and their flawless catalog of songs is understandably mouth-watering for any sampler or remixer. Plenty of producers have touched her catalog to sublime effect, with Mad Professor’s lovers rock mix of “Love Is Stronger Than Pride,” The Neptunes’ mix of “By Your Side” (better than the original, and the best Neptunes production of all time as far as this reviewer is concerned) and an assortment of unofficial jungle and footwork versions deserving special mention. That’s why we could never figure out why there were no good Sade house mixes. God knows there are enough nice & neat cookie-cutter refixes floating around, but they’re all way too lazy and uninspired for our tastes. Putting a Sade vocal over a mediocre tech-house beat and stamping it “Sade House Mixes” is an easy and fast way to move 1000 white labels, but a total disservice to Sade and their legacy. Enter Florian Kupfer. These edits are so minimal and straightforward, marrying the inherent beauty of any random 4-bar snippet from the Sade oeuvre with the dusty, blown-out house sound popularized by labels like L.I.E.S., L.A. Club Resource and Opal Tapes. You gotta hand it to him. Either he’s trolling us completely or throwing a bone to the ‘outsider house’ jocks and making some easy cash in the process. Many would consider putting Sade through an overdrive pedal to be a cardinal sin, but honestly, we’re surprised no one did it sooner (Zomby got close on “Test Me For A Reason,” off his self-titled 2008 self-titled Hyperdub EP). Side A features a crackly mix of “I Couldn’t Love You More” off Love Deluxe, with an off-kilter version of Sade’s brooding ballad “I Never Thought I’d See The Day” from Stronger Than Pride on the flip. Recommended. (Note for the uninitiated: your turntable isn’t broken, the record isn’t defective, it’s not a faulty pressing, it was meant to sound that way! Audio samples are streaming on this page; try before you buy.)

• black label pressing
• limited edition
• music label: Florian Kupfer self-released 2017

reviewed by peanut dust 08/2017