Premiere: “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” (Paul Woolford Rework)
Remixing Timo Maas + James Teej’s interpretation of a Paul McCartney and Wings’ rock song
“Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” is the perfect curtain-call track to Band on the Run, Paul McCartney and Wings’ third studio album—it’s as funky as it is climactic, with that requisite hue of psychedelia. Jump to 2016: German DJ Timo Maas and Canadian producer James Teej heard the dance floor potential in this decades-old track. After getting a hold of the original 1973 multi-track recordings, the two collaborators have now re-interpreted “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” for a younger generation—while beautifully preserving Sir Paul’s fervent, blues-y vocals. Fresh off the press is Paul Woolford’s remix of this remix—the UK dance producer (who also releases music under the alias Special Request, with an EP to be released on indie favorite XL Recordings) goes as far to extend it to a 18-minute jam in his full-length reword. The below, premiering on CH, is a more digestible version edited down to 10 minutes. But time moves quickly in this hypnotic, grooving state.
“When I first saw the email with the remix by Paul Woolford, I was like… nearly 19 minutes? WTF. And then I listened to the full rework… dirty, trippy and even a bit ironic towards the end,” Timo Maas tells CH. “That’s a masterpiece indeed!” The Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five single is now out on Virgin Records. New Yorkers, check out Timo Maas performing along with Jimmy Edgar, Paul Kalkbrenner, Nic Fanciulli and more this 31 July at a secret location.
