Dutch DJ and producer, Richie Rozex, gives 80s and 90s pop classics a dance floor makeover
Dutch producer and DJ, Richie Rozex, seems to have found the sweet spot on my musical Venn Diagram: 80s and 90s pop hits mixed to a house beat.
It might sound like an obvious easy task, but I don’t think that’s true. It takes a special skill to remix globally well-known pop hits. You have to retain the spirit of the original but change it enough that it feels like something fresh and new (otherwise you’d just listen to the real thing). Rozex does this excellently (and makes it look easy in the process).
Hits like Sade’s “Smooth Operator,” Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” or Charles & Eddie’s 1992 classic, “Would I Lie To You” are all put through Rozex’s house filter to translate them into dancefloor bangers.
And it’s not just about putting a house beat underneath each track. Rozex finds the draws out the soul of the track before underpinning it with 120 beats per second. Take his remix of “Just The Two Of Us” by Grover Washington Jr. for example. He let’s the opening chorus breath with the original percussion before dropping us back into a bouncy house beat. The melody of the keys wander throughout the track, and then that iconic sax part plays out perfectly over the beat to round out the track.
Have a listen to a few of my favorite Richie Rozex cuts below, and if you like what you hear, head over to his Soundcloud page to get a load more.
Charles & Eddie – Would I Lie To You (Richie Rozex remix)Sade – Smooth Operator (Richie Rozex remix)
Bobby Caldwell – What You Wont Do For Love (Richie Rozex remix)
Grover Washington Jr. – Just The Two Of Us (Richie Rozex remix)
Donna Summer – I Feel Love (Richie Rozex remix)
