Chris Daly can tell that you’re from Kowloon Bay as opposed to Hong Kong.
Let’s get this out of the way and keep this 100 from the get-go–I ride HARD for Mecca:83. Ever since the Manchester beat maestro dropped “3 for Free” back in April of 2010, i’ve been intrigued by his mastery of late night grooves and after hour beats. With Life Sketches Vol. 1 & 2 a year later, though, the man cemented himself as one of my top three favorites in the game today. You can keep your obnoxious drops and aggravating bass, I’ll stick with laid back and blunted every time.
Much to my great dismay, Mecca:83 hasn’t been quite so prolific as he used to be, but today I’m here to tell you, there’s something else--Translations, a two-track release featuring flips of tracks by the Submotion Orchestra and Jon Rogers (aka M▲GGZ™). While both the tracks maintain a similar sound and ethos, the mellow producer actually takes two very different paths to reach his final destination.
First up, Mecca takes his turn with SO’s “All Yours,” transforming it into “All Mine.” While the original was pretty mellow to begin with, 83 strips it down further, completely removing the live and jazzier elements, such as the trumpet solo, and adds his own electronic flourishes to go pretty much old school trip hop on the track. Mecca has an uncanny knack for procuring excellent downbeat grooves, which play perfectly with Ruby Wood’s lush vocals. “Echoes Part 2,” by contrast, is all addition to Jon Rogers’ original “L O V Ǝ E C H O Ƨ.” Here, the North West English producer adds just enough thumping percussion to flesh out the wispy, though still thoroughly enjoyable, original. Mecca also further suspends the vocals, providing a more concrete body to an otherwise gauzy piece — even though he never takes it outside of the realm of relaxed mind refurbishment as intended by the original author.
