Review
Genre and Mood
Be Svendsen: Black Tower Hotel - Be Svendsen Mix, as the streaming services title it, is a song by The Crooked Spoke, a Copenhagen duo, turned into deep house by the Danish producer Be Svendsen. His mix sits between deep house and tech house, electronic through and through, yet it keeps something old in it. The mood is mysterious and nostalgic: the label describes a wondrous and mysterious hotel and female singing from times long gone.
Song Summary
The original is the second track of The Crooked Spoke’s 2008 album The One You Left Behind, written by Asger Baden with lyrics by Baden and Rasmus Olesen. Maria Laurette Friis sang it, Eske Nørrelykke played double bass and Per Møllehøj a guitar solo that Last.fm’s biography of the band calls a dream-like gypsy-jazz line floating below her voice. Be Svendsen took that song into a club setting. The label’s notes name the ingredients of his version: the singing, double bass chords and synthesizer riffs.
Musical Breakdown
No review we found describes the mix section by section, so this page follows the label’s description of its layers.
The Voice
A female voice that sounds as if it came from another era; MusicBrainz credits the remix to the band featuring Friis, the singer of the original.
The Bass and the Riffs
Double bass chords at the bottom and synthesizer riffs above them: the acoustic world of the band record and the electronic world of the remix in one frame.
The Long Form
At 7:22, the digital version gives these layers room; the vinyl cut runs longer still.
Concepts in Focus
A remix can change a song’s world without erasing it. The Crooked Spoke’s record is credited to a band with double bass, guitar and drums; Be Svendsen’s version, released under his own name on his Catchpenny & Cosmos EP, has a voice and a double bass, as the original does, and adds the rhythms of a dance floor. The Topic upload credits The Crooked Spoke as artist and composer and Svendsen as producer and remixer.
The riff is a short figure repeated until it becomes the track’s backbone. In the label’s description the riffs belong to the synthesizers: the electronic part of the mix, set against the acoustic double bass.
Artistic Context
The Crooked Spoke are Asger Baden on keyboards and Peter Leth on drums, who self-produced their album in a small studio with guest singers and guitarists. Be Svendsen is a deep house and downtempo DJ and producer based in Copenhagen. Catchpenny & Cosmos was a two-part EP on Acker Records; this mix opened Part 2, released on vinyl in July 2011 with a Mollono.Bass remix the label calls a rolling groove, then digitally on 11 August 2011. Kompakt’s notes say the second part has deeper atmospheres and more electronic rhythms.
Impact and Reception
We found no review of the mix, only the label’s notes and the record itself. It is here because it shows how a remix can open a door between scenes. Listen with Swing Republic, The Mills Brothers – Moanin’ for You for another Danish meeting of old voices and new beats.
