Review
Genre and Mood
Slackwax made Close to My Fire with Anna Leyne as its voice, and it sits between electronic production, soul and the lounge of hotel compilations. The feelings named here, sultry and intimate, follow the one description of the original found: a review of its later cover, which spoke of its lascivious feel and its electronic, minimalist production.
Song Summary
The song did not start as a single. Slackwax say their production team composed it to order, as the title music of a BMW television campaign for the 6 Series convertible. Released as an EP on Modernsoul on 17 December 2010, it became the duo’s best-known song and later opened their debut album Night Out, which Slackwax date to 2013; there Anna Leyne also sings on Dying Day, Come Away and In My Shoes. Wikipedia credits Peter Hoppe and Stephanie Popp as its writers.
Musical Breakdown
The only account of the original’s sound is a sentence in a review of the cover, so what follows asks questions of the track rather than charting it.
Main Section
The voice is the centre. Listen for how close it sounds, and for how much space the minimalist production leaves around it.
Production
Slackwax describe their style as an eclectic mix of jazz, soul, country, dub and electronic sounds, between vintage and modern. Listen for which of those you can pick out in four minutes.
Outro
Listen for how the song ends, and compare it with the shorter edit, under four minutes, that the Hôtel Costes 15 compilation used in 2011.
Concepts in Focus
Close to My Fire is a good case for the cover version. In 2013 the singer Beth Hart and the guitarist Joe Bonamassa recorded it for Seesaw, their album of covers. Get Ready to Rock wrote that their version stuck close to the lascivious feel of the original while swapping its electronic minimalist production for deep guitar tones: the same song, carried by a band instead of a studio.
Anna Leyne is the <a href=“https://korczis.github.io/sonic-playground/concept/featured-artist/” class=“concept-link font-medium text-primary-700 underline decoration-dotted underline-offset-4 hover:decoration-solid dark:text-primary-400” data-concept=“featured-artist” title=“A guest performer credited on another artist’s track, usually as “feat.”: a rapper’s verse, a singer’s hook or a second voice. Features bring together different styles and audiences and are central to hip-hop, R&B and dance music.“>featured artist, credited after the duo’s name. Slackwax are producers first, and here a singer gives the song its face; she later sang on their Slackwax reworks Mousse T. EP too.
Artistic Context
Slackwax are Peter Hoppe, a Nuremberg producer, and Bernd Batke, who also sings and plays bass in the alternative-country band Smokestack Lightnin’. They formed the duo in 2005, are signed to Modernsoul, and have placed music in films such as Wüstenblume and produced campaigns for Adidas, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and MINI.
Impact and Reception
The song travelled further than an advertisement usually does: onto the Hôtel Costes series, onto the duo’s album and onto a record by two blues artists. Like The Limp Twins – Sunday Driver, it shows how a compilation can carry a track far from home. Put it on late, quietly.
