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Stee Downes, Gabe

Asunder - Gabe Remix

The São Paulo producer Gabe turns Stee Downes's soul song Asunder into deep house for the 2013 Secret Place EP on Berlin's OFF Recordings: in the label's words, a slow, ragga-infused song that puts the vocals in motion, made for sunsets at the beach.

By korczis 3 min read
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Review

Genre and Mood

Gabe remixed Stee Downes’s Asunder into deep house: Asunder (Gabe Remix) is a soul song moved to the dancefloor. OFF Recordings, the Berlin label that released it, filed it under deep house and described “a slow ragga infused song”, “perfect for those chilling sunsets at the beach”. Those words give this page its feelings, relaxed and warm, and the DJ Shir Khan, quoted in the label’s notes, added his own: “so sweet”.

Song Summary

Asunder first opened Downes’s 2008 debut album All In A Day on Sonar Kollektiv, a mid-tempo soul song he wrote himself. Five years later Gabe, the São Paulo DJ and producer Gabriel Serrasqueiro, remixed it for the Secret Place EP, catalogued OFF064 and released digitally on 23 July 2013 and on vinyl in August. It is the second of four tracks, after Secret Place, Gabe’s collaboration with his countryman Thomaz Krauze. The remix runs seven minutes and fifty seconds, two minutes longer than the original.

Musical Breakdown

No source we found walks through the remix part by part or times it; what the label describes is its character as a whole.

Main Section

The label’s key word is slow. A remix for the dancefloor might be expected to push the tempo, but OFF heard a slow, ragga-infused song: listen for the steady deep house pulse under it, and for a Jamaican lilt in the rhythm.

The Vocal

The label says the remix “puts the magnificent vocals in motion”. Downes’s voice from the original stays at the centre; what moves is the music around it.

Concepts in Focus

A remix rebuilds a recording from its parts. Compare this one with the original, Stee Downes – Asunder: Downes and Ishfaq played every instrument on a record made in two weeks in Croatia, a small band sound. Gabe keeps the song and the voice and changes the ground under them, and he lets it run longer.

The house groove is that new ground: the steady dance pulse that deep house sets under a song. Asunder was written for swaying; here it is set to a beat for dancing slowly.

Artistic Context

OFF Recordings was founded in Berlin by Andre Crom in 2008. Its notes for the EP introduce Gabe as “an established name in the South American scene” with releases on top labels, and Downes as “one of the most representative voices of today’s house scene”; the Dublin singer had spent years as a DJ before his soul album. The EP pairs them with Thomaz Krauze’s Funky Thing and two Gabe and Krauze collaborations, Secret Place and I Don’t Need You.

Impact and Reception

We found no review of the remix and no chart entry. The label’s own notes collected feedback from DJs, among them Shir Khan’s line for this track. It remains the version of Asunder made for clubs. Play the original first, then this, at sunset.

Learn from this track

Introductory

What you will learn

  • Explain what a remix keeps of a song and what it changes, by comparing Gabe's version of Asunder with the 2008 original.
  • Describe the house groove a deep house remix sets under a soul vocal.
  • Read a label's release notes as a source: what they tell you about a track, and what they are written to do.

Listening guide

  1. the pace OFF Recordings calls the remix a slow song: listen for a house track that keeps the original's unhurried feel rather than speeding it up.
  2. the rhythm The label hears it as ragga infused: listen for a Jamaican lilt in the rhythm.
  3. the vocal The same notes say the remix puts Downes's vocals in motion: listen for the voice from the original riding a new groove.
  4. the length The remix runs 7:50, two minutes longer than the 5:49 original: listen for where Gabe makes room for the groove alone.

Concepts in this track

remix

164 tracks

A new version of a recording made by reworking its parts: changing the beat, harmony, tempo or structure, often by another producer. A remix can turn a ballad into a club track.

house groove

45 tracks

The rhythmic signature of house music: a four-on-the-floor kick, off-beat hi-hats and claps on two and four, at roughly 118 to 128 beats per minute.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. The original was soul for a slow afternoon; the remix, the label says, is for sunsets at the beach. How different are those two settings?
  2. A remix is two minutes longer than its original. What does a dance producer use the extra time for?
  3. Release notes are written to sell a record. How far would you trust them as a description of how it sounds?

References

  1. OFF Recordings. Stee Downes - Asunder (Gabe Remix) - OFF064 (2013). Label
  2. Discogs. Gabe, Thomaz Krauze & Stee Downes - Secret Place (2013). Database
  3. Discogs. Gabe (5). Database
  4. Discogs. OFF Recordings. Database
  5. MusicBrainz. Asunder (Gabe Remix) (recording) (2013). Database
  6. Stee Downes - Topic. Asunder (Gabe Remix). Video
  7. Sonar Kollektiv. Stee Downes: All In A Day (2008). Label

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