In demand drummer for Melt Yourself Down and the Owiny Sigoma Band, Tom Skinner, steps out of the spotlight from his recent worldwide successes and a recent EU tour with Atoms For Peace to rework Kit Grill's track "Velodrome" with an all live set up. Contrasting from the original's very digital tone, Skinny has brought in the help of his previous collaborator, Shabaka Hutchings. Aware that Kit wasn't too keen on having remixes done, Hello Skinny thought it would be more interesting to do a cover version. The idea was to replay some of the core melodic and rhythmic material but rearranged loosely for a more acoustic set up. Hello Skinny started off as a duo between Tom Skinner and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings so it made sense to go back to this original format for the basis of this cover version.
The whole piece is built around a one-take performance of the main theme from Shabaka on clarinet. A feat of human physical endurance, he manages to maintain the repetition of the part whilst changing the timbre and texture through circular breathing and other extended techniques. We then overdubbed the counter melody and a bass clarinet part. Having the overall shape of the piece, Hello Skinny was able to play a live drum take along to it.
With a bit of extra percussion, liberal use of delay and some distortion the track was taken to close friend and collaborator Chris Morphitis to mix. The whole piece was bounced to 8-track tape and mixed to 2-track tape utilizing his beautiful Studer desk and gorgeous plate reverb. Job done.