OK, cheating a little bit with the blog today as I don’t have much to say. A few weeks ago, I discovered that Duran Duran had released the stems to “Nite-Runner” for a remix contest during the promotion of Red Carpet Massacre. After a futile search, Ross (@rdebaa) on Twitter discovered them on his computer and sent them over. So last week, I dug into them to see what I could come up with. Five hours later, I had wasted my afternoon remixing a song that not every Duranie loved at the time. However, it was a lot of fun so have a listen below!
As for the remix, I tried to remove some of the influence that Timbaland added to the production as it didn’t work for me on this track. I think there is a lot to love on RCM but I always felt that “Nite-Runner” was a little too sluggish. So, I bumped up the BPM and added a more disco-friendly beat. I also think Dom Brown did some fantastic guitar work on this track so I tried to muscle that up by adding more distortion to the riff while putting the guitar higher in the verse with a clean tone that reminds me of what Nile Rodgers would bring to the band. I don’t actually know what I’m doing so it’s mostly just pushing things around to see what happens but I hope it brings a new appreciation to a song, and an album, that doesn’t always get the love it deserves. Let me know what you think.
Comments
I just finished listening to your remix and have to tell you that I’m grinning because I loved it! Unlike a lot of fans, I do not hate RCM, but it does come across too heavy and ponderous in places. I’ll credit Timbaland for that, as Duran might be many things, but heavy and ponderous are not it. Increasing the tempo put it right into familiar territory and it sounded more like a Duran dance track. I’d love to hear more of these kind of remixes, and by that I mean removing or diminishing as much of Timbaland as possible .His style just didn’t fit well with Duran, in my opinion.
Thank you so much!!!