The Revenge Shows Us His Love Will Not Die

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The Revenge Shows Us His Love Will Not Die

Disco dynamite from a Glaswegian great.

Glaswegian disco don Graeme Clark has been releasing shit-hot edits and original stompers for a while now. After toiling away in clubs and studios, and honing his craft for years, it was 2010's Reekin'Structions remix compilation for Joey Negro's Z Records that won him attention from dancefloors worldwide.

Not content with being best known for reworks, Clark is now turning heads with debut original production LP, Love That Will Not Die, set for release March 30 through his own Roar Groove imprint. Not many records out this year can lay claim to featuring Sister Sledge so when Clark got in touch and asked if he could give us a track-by-track, blow-by-blow, account of the record we were pretty, pretty jazzed.

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Here's what the man behind the music had to say about it.

1. "Intro"

This was just a funny moment that I captured whilst playing with Craig Smith in Edinburgh. The soundsystem went off whilst we were playing and took about 10 minutes to come back on. The crowd went from mocking, to pissed off, to accepting that it wasn't coming back on, and when it finally did it was great. Unfortunately, I couldn't include that bit because I was playing someone else's music, but I thought it was just a funny way to start the record.

2. "The Seed"

This was the first track that I made with a new perspective in 2012. I'd been really ill and pretty much confined to the house so I'd moved my studio setup around and starting coming up with new ideas. I'd just played a live show in Glasgow as an experiment to see whether I still had a feeling for live, and that lead me to realising that the studio and the live thing were totally linked for me. It was an important moment.

3. "Crush"

I'd borrowed my mate Ali OOFT's Juno 106 for a bit and had recorded a lot of parts for different tracks. This had a sort of 80's Depeche Mode lead line that had sat about on my hard drive for a year or so. I just kept coming back to it again and again and it sort of crystallised when I made the beat a bit dirtier.

4. "Just One Touch"

This one was a fusion of a few different things. The rhythm had been part of a remix that I never quite completed and I just stumbled on it when I was putting the album together. The vocal bits had originally been part of a techno track which ended up becoming "MWI" from my first EP on Roar Groove. I just fused them together with the little drops and it became this.

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5. "Incredible Shellsuit (Theme)"

"Incredible Shellsuit" was a track on my last single for my label but I couldn't squeeze it onto the album. I wanted it to be represented though because the hook always felt really strong. It wangled it's way in on this short melodic cut.

6. "Another Light"

I'd worked with Jesse on a few tracks and she'd been so patient with me chopping up all her great vocal parts. The track that was originally gonna be on the album with her just never quite fitted for me and so I was just jamming on another thing when I found this little bit of vocal that she'd put down. Just a kinda dirty, melancholic vibe.

7. "Night Fever"

I had the lead line of this one for a while with a different beat. It actually had a sampled beat and vocal, which would have probably been too difficult for us to clear, so I stripped it all down and built a new rhythm. I added some extra bits of percussion from my mate Esa Williams (Auntie Flo) that I'd recorded previously.

8. "A New Heaven"

This one went through so many different mutations. It was originally a mid-­tempo funk number with a really hooky melody. But I felt that it was almost too much for the album so I wanted to do another version that was more chilled out. I mellowed down a lot of the elements to get to this version which I felt fitted better on balance.

9. "Stay A While" feat. Sister Sledge

This collab came about by the magic of Twitter. Joni, Debbie and their rep, Sam, had liked a version I did of one of their early tracks and had mentioned it online. I got in touch to say thanks and that I was working on some new stuff if they wanted to hear it. We ended up with a day in London to put it together and it turned into "Stay A While". They were so cool and down to earth about the whole process which was so refreshing.

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10. "Love That Will Not Die"

I had jammed this one with my TR­909 using the 'external instrument' function to make the bassline. It had sat around for a while as this raw­ slow­house thing with me adding extra bits, vocals etc. It became the axis for the album in an emotional way really - just a track that didn't need to say too much but said a lot to me.

11. "Otherlover"

This track has been with me for about 15 years in one shape or another. When I first started playing live around 2001 / 2002 it was a part of the set, and then it was just shelved whilst life took over. The chord sound was from my Waldorf Microwave XT synth that I've had for about 18 years. I had made the sound just before I made the track and it's been really difficult to match it. The synth needs some repair now, but I was glad I squeezed this one out before it pops its clogs!

12. "Tender Is The Night (Harder Is The Day)"

Another one that came from those tinkerings with the Juno 106. The chord pattern came first I think. I remember it starting with an old Kashif edit I was working on for my DJ sets which I'd played some chords over. I took the sample out and started jamming on it from there.

13. "Dance 4 U"

I think I made the original of this in 1999. I added the synth at the start very recently, but the bassline remains close to the original. The big rising woosh sounds came from my Waldorf synth again and had been recorded in the original session in 99.

14. "Love That Will Not Die (Reprise)"

This part was originally on the end of the main mix, but I felt that the flow of the album worked better for the original to be in the middle and have something to close the album off. It uses a muted part of the main melody that I never included in the main version.

Love That Will Not Die will be released on Monday 30th March on The Revenge's Roar Groove imprint and will be available on limited edition double 12″ vinyl, CD and in digital format.

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