London electro star Dan Black has been forced to re-record his cult hit ‘HYPNTZ’ due to a string of difficulties.
Dan Black was originally a guitar player in one of yer bog standard indie groups, before heading for the hills and re-emerging as an electro star. Recent singles such as ‘Yours’ have seen his profile shoot up, with his cheeky Notorious B.I.G. cover ‘HYPNTZ’ becoming a cult favourite.
However it seems as if that song will no longer be available after a series of legal rows. In a new blog posting Black announces that he has been forced to re-record the song, which will now be known as ‘Symphonies’.
“I have had a bit of a nightmare these last few weeks and I thought it might be time for me to bring you all up to speed…” writes the producer.
“Simply put, this was a strangely made song. I had taken the drums from Rihanna’s Umbrella, chopped up soundtrack samples from eighties sci-fi movie Starman and then over this written vocal melodies on which I sang the lyrics from The Notorious B.I.G.’s colossus Hypnotise.”
“Now, on this very night before the video shoot, I got the word from on high: we can’t use the B.I.G. lyrics. His estate refuses all use of his music and lyrics. No exceptions.”
“I must say I find it a little ironic that the Notorious B.I.G. Estate was so inflexible. Hip hop is a genre totally built upon turntable culture, samples and the placing of pre-existing music into fresh and exciting new worlds. So to then turn around and refuse that very process to someone else seems basically hypocritical to me.”
Faced with no other option, Dan Black began working on the song again.
“I decided to just write brand new lyrics and just totally rerecord the fucker. There was something so great and unique about the music that I couldn’t just let it slide away into the darkness without a fight. So, drawing inspiration from these insane circumstances, I have done just that.”
“So finally the insomnia that returned again recedes, a brand new video is about to be shot, the band and I ready to hit the shows we have lined up, and the album (just re-mastered on friday) is ready to go. Hu-fucking-rah!”
Dan Black’s newly re-recorded track ‘Symphonies’ will be available soon.
