Behind The Rework: Connan Mockasin 'Forever Dolphin Love'


Connan Mockasin 
'Forever Dolphin Love' (Erol Alkan's Rework) taken from his 'Reworks Volume 1' compilation, a track long been out of print and highly sought after on vinyl.

"My rework of Connan Mockasin's ‘Forever Dolphin Love’ is one of my personal favourites. Back in 2010, Phantasy signed a label deal with Because Music, and the first record we released was a re-named and re-packaged version of his debut album 'Please Turn Me Into The Snat', which we had released on Phantasy a few months prior. Once we signed, we were able to change the title, sleeve artwork, and then present this special album to the bigger audience it deserved, and even though we hadn't really thought about remixing Connan's music at that point, I felt drawn enough to suggest we look at possible remixes.
 

I had the parts for both 'Forever Dolphin Love' and 'Unicorn In Uniform', and started 'Unicorn' first, but after I spent a few hours on it, nothing I did caught fire at all. So I went through the parts for 'F.D.L' just to see what was in there, and whilst playing back the guitar part, a bassline began in my head, one which quickly intertwined around it. I quickly played the part in and captured the midi in order not to forget it before I went to bed. That night I must have dreamt the entire rework and had it all finished in my head before I even went to the computer the next morning. I went to the computer and made the whole thing in a matter of hours. The new keyboard part which comes in during the middle and outro is the combination of a real Juno 6 and it's relative plug in. Once I found the right sound on the analog Juno, I matched it on the plug in (it was quite a way off but I didn't mind it tbf) and merged to two sounds together. There's a big Johnny Marr influence in there at the end with the guitar parts I added, think I had 'Well I Wonder' by The Smiths floating around in my head, I suppose that pushed the melancholy button in further.. The track was mixed through my Trident Fleximix, which I didn't use that much around then, but it was a way to soften many of the new sounds which were now added to the existing sounds from Connan's original, plus it managed to give it quite a hazy, lucid feel. 

If any of you are a bit superstitious, this was also the 13th single release on Phantasy.." - Erol Alkan

Pre-order 'Reworks Volume 1' on double CD, five piece vinyl boxset or separately on 12" vinyl with his Hot Chip rework on the flip side HERE


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