Love Comes In And Fills Up Everywhere

Twelve months on from their last release, A Man Called Adam have a new single out on 13th September.

 

Well, kind of new and kind of a single. Estelle Special Edition 2024 is an 8-track, 52-minute celebration of the song which first appeared on the inaugural Café Del Mar compilation in the summer of 1994. 

 

Thirty years on, with the lousy summer we've had in the UK, "a mystic transformation from the darkness to the light" is just what we need.

 

José Padilla may have got there first, but A Man Called Adam did the right thing by sequencing Estelle as the closing track of their 1998 album Duende. It's a perfect fit in both environment, built around xylophonic (poly)rhythms, guitar strums, synth washes and Sally Rodgers uplifting vocals. The icing on the cake is Eddie Parker's flute, used sparingly but integral to the overall sound.

 

Estelle Special Edition 2024 closes with the original Café Del Mar version, offering up 7 new, rare and unreleased versions, all of which offer a fresh perspective on the song.

My picks are the previously unreleased Censer Remix by A Man Called Adam (1994) and Luv...Reprise, one of three remixes (from the Fear Of Flying remix album circa 1996) by Sensory Productions aka Rob Mello and Zaki Dee. Finally, back to Sally Rodgers and Steve Jones for a 2024 Extended Mix that removes some of the layers to give more space to flute and vocals and teases the music out to nearly nine and a half minutes. 

Sheer bliss and an essential (pre)order for this week's Bandcamp Friday.