Tori's Primal Joy

Exactly one year ago, I wrote about the Tori Amos song God, specifically The Dharma Kayã Mix by Manchester band The Joy, a 12 minute blissful excursion into ambient soundscapes that was a bit of a radical departure for Ms. Amos at the time.

The post then moved on to The Joy's own bonafide classic, Shine, featuring the wonderfully talented and much missed Denise Johnson. Denise also appeared on Primal Scream's epic track Screamadelica, which ironically didn't make it on to the classic album of the same name.

The original post included YouTube links to the featured songs, so I'm revisiting them with today's selection, albeit with a slight twist and tweak.

The selection is topped and tailed by Tori Amos, starting off with a song that I didn't feature last time, Raspberry Swirl, taken from 1998 album From The Choirgirl Hotel. Andy Gray, perhaps best known for replacing Steve Osborne as Paul Oakenfold's production partner in Perfecto and in turn responsible for the theme to reality TV show Big Brother, delivered a clutch of remixes for the single release, including this downtempo version.

 

The Joy's Shine is up next, not the 27 minute Hyperphoria Mix referenced in last year’s post but the Samadhi Mantra Mix, also remixed by The Joy's core of Ali Fletcher and David Tolan and coming in at a brisker 16 minutes. 

 

From Shine to Screamadelica, but not as you know it. The original Andrew Weatherall production is a sheer joy, digging a groove for nearly 11 minutes. However, I'm saving that one for another time. Here, Mark Vidler aka Go Home Productions adds (his own) guitar to provide a blistering, kick ass version that comes in at a neat 5 minutes. Naturally, Denise Johnson's vocals are more than a match for this different setting, soaring effortlessly above the riffs. This version originally appeared on 2005 online bootleg compilation Screamixadelica.

 

Last but definitely not least is the remix that (re)started this post, The Dharma Kayã Mix of God by Tori Amos, every bit as good as when I first heard it, nearly three decades ago.

 

1) Raspberry Swirl (Scarlet Spectrum Feels) (Remix By Andy Gray): Tori Amos (1998)

2) Shine (Samadhi Mantra Mix): The Joy ft. Denise Johnson (1994)

3) Screamadelica (Go Home Productions' Skreamadelikka Mix By Mark Vidler): Primal Scream ft. Denise Johnson (2005)

4) God (The Dharma Kayã Mix By The Joy): Tori Amos (1994)

Tori's Primal Joy (41:37)