Cargo Records

Yellow Tongue / Yellow Version

With yet more prestige productions in the can and waiting to be announced, the ‘Mighty Upsetter’ remix series steps up a gear with this pumpin’ dumpin’ rub from Kode 9. The Hyperdub boss took the better part of six months to work and rework Lee Perry and Adrian Sherwood’s original audio ingredients, repeatedly returning to the drawing board, and here at last are the fruits of those reverent labours.

Heavily reshaped from the prototype album cut apart from Lee Perry and Samia Farah’s reverb-soaked vocals which remain largely intact, Kode 9’s remix of ‘Yellow Tongue’ strikes right at the heart of “funky”, emphasising what that word has meant for three-plus decades while at the same time highlighting the better elements of the bass-oriented genre which has recently co-opted the name. Insistent clicking beats and a subtly pulsating rhythm fuel the ride, yet it’s the looping mid-tempo house groove that gives this track its dancefloor appeal as much as its fragmented syncopation and pneumatic low-end spring. Offbeat dub version on the flip nails selector essential status, as if that was ever in doubt, and with a limited pressing run confirmed this is one not to be missed.