In these globally conscious times – where wasting precious resources on trivial things would be a shooting offense, if we could only spare the bullets – everyone loves a good recycler. Music is no different, in this regard. You can recycle old sounds, or old guitars, old ideas, old clothes or old poses. You can re-use the swagger of an olden-days singer or the hairstyle of some rock grandad or other. It’s all there for the taking.

The trick is to find something which hasn’t been recycled so often it loses its original shape and starts to get a bit baggy at the seams, so you end up having to basically remake the whole thing from scratch (Glee people, I am looking at you).

Credit to wiley old Mr Wiley then, for finding a sample of a late ’90s hit which itself contains a sample of an old song from the past. This is therefore double recycling. He can basically drive a Hummer into a panda now, and he’ll still be ahead of most of us.*

(Here’s the video. It’s a mini-biopic.)

The sample in question is from White Town’s ‘Your Woman’, a No.1 hit in 1997. It was notable at the time for being an early example of a home studio hit, as it was recorded entirely using a free music software program which was free on the cover of a magazine.

‘Your Woman’ used a sped-up sample from a song called ‘My Woman’, as written by Bing Crosby and sung by Al Bowlly in 1932. New song, new title. And now it’s happened again. This time, the tinny brass and clarinet refrain has been sped up (still) further, and welded to some…well it’s a modern production compared to that of either previous version of the song, but defiantly old school techno/drum & bass by anyone else’s standards.

And what better setting to tell a story as old as time itself. Men wandering around, picking up girls, leaving chaos in their wake. Girls pining after the man that got away. Air freshener, wild orchid. We’ve all been there.

In fact, put this up against Alexandra Burke’s ‘Bad Boys’ and you’ve got yourself an ethics class debate, set to music. AND some musical history too. Isn’t education amazing?

Download: Out now
CD Released: February 28th
www.myspace.com/eskiboywiley
BBC Music page

(Fraser McAlpine)

* No he can’t, and nor should you.

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