Here’s five edits and remixes that take Peter Gabriel’s songs to the dancefloor, from Fort Romeau’s seminal 12″ to a new BAR:LOW record.
Peter Gabriel‘s records have always been built from the rhythm up. The drum machines and percussion of his third and fourth albums, the soul of So, the grooves under Us. There’s a pulse under most of it, which is why DJs keep coming back to him.
He’s still at it too. When he played the 3Arena in 2023, he was still experimenting after all these years, and his new album o\i arrives on Friday November 27th in two versions, a Bright-Side Mix and a Dark-Side Mix.
Here are five edits and remixes that take his songs into the club.
Fort Romeau – PG Goes Dance
The benchmark. Fort Romeau‘s three Gabriel edits first appeared as a limited 12″ in July 2015, credited only to F.T.R.M. on a label called Pgdance. It just so happened to arrive the same year that Lumo Club started and it became a staple of Lumo Club nights and Nialler9 DJ sets over the next 11 years.
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Each track stretches a Gabriel song out to six or seven minutes. ‘No Self Control’ becomes ‘K.O.N.T.R.O.L’, ‘In Your Eyes’ becomes ‘L.O.S.T.’ and his Laurie Anderson co-write ‘This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds)’ becomes ‘P.I.C.T.U.R.E.S’.
All three remixes are really top quality edits – though ‘L.O.S.T.’ and ‘P.I.C.T.U.R.E.S’. are low-BPM for the dancefloor where the big one ‘K.O.N.T.R.O.L’, is 115BPM seven minute disco-ball twirling mix of synths, cascading bass and Gabriel’s ruminating vocals perfect for the gear shift to the next part of the night when the dancefloor seal has broken. In this guise, this is one of my favourite songs of all-time.
Fort Romeau finally put the EP on Bandcamp in March 2020, and a handful of warehouse-find copies of the 12″ have turned up there too.
BAR:LOW – Ken Again – ‘The Raver Returns’
The newest record here. BAR:LOW is a series of under-the-counter edits, and Ken Again’s BAR:LOW#3 lands on 12″ on Monday November 30th, three days after o\i.
It has three tracks: ‘Ken Goes Kosmic’, ‘The Raver Returns’ and ‘Ken Goes To Quadrant Park’. The label pitches the A-side as two chugging cuts with a Cosmic disco pulse, while the B-side flashes back to sweatier times, its title nodding to the old Liverpool rave club.
‘The Raver Returns’ is the Gabriel one, an edit of ‘I Don’t Remember’, from the 1980 Peter Gabriel 3: Melt album – which adds this gnarly growling industrial electro swing to the song.
Pre-order BAR:LOW#3 here to avoid UK customs charges.
Peter Gabriel – ‘My Head Sounds Like That (Röyksopp Remix)’
The one official entry on the list. ‘My Head Sounds Like That’ is from Gabriel’s 2002 album Up, and Röyksopp‘s remix stretches it past eight minutes.
It was gathered onto Flotsam and Jetsam, his 2019 digital collection of B-sides, remixes and rarities. That set is worth digging through for the 12″ versions alone, including John ‘Tokes’ Potoker’s Dance Mix of ‘Sledgehammer’ and Jason Corsaro’s special remix of ‘In Your Eyes’.
Angel D – ‘Sledgehammer’ (edit)
‘Sledgehammer’ was always the most obvious dance record in Gabriel’s catalogue. He has said he was drawing on soul music when he wrote it, and it gave him a US number one in 1986.
Italian DJ and producer Angel D put his edit out in 2021 beefing up the drums. His Bandcamp is full of reworks of the same vintage, from Simple Minds’ ‘New Gold Dream’ to Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’.
There’s also the Twin Sun edit.
K-Boys – ‘Games Without Frontiers’ (edit)
‘Games Without Frontiers’ gave Gabriel his first UK top 10 in 1980, with Kate Bush singing the “jeux sans frontières” hook.
This unofficial edit by K-Boys runs to just over six minutes and came out in 2011 on Everything 02, a compilation from the Berlin label KANN.
Also on the same track tip – Zebo aka Johnny Too Badd Re-Rub’s version:
More?
Peter Gabriel – Steam (Petko Turner Funky Edit)
Deep Forest & Peter Gabriel – While The Earth Sleeps (Casey Core Re-Edit)
Love a Peter Gabriel edit I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
