Sculpture Projects
Sculpture Projects – October (remix), track by track
Released soon after the Everybody should be able to be whoever they want to be EP, in November 2024, as an autumnal bonus, the October (remix) digital single has two tracks. They are discussed here by artist/producer David Gauntlett.
October (Sculpture Projects remix)
“October has turned out to be my most-reworked track. It was originally conceived in 2021, and appeared in its first form on the Restless EP in 2022. Then it got a new propulsive bassline, and some new melodic elements, which I added for live performance later in 2022. I released the live version in 2023, and this remix starts off in a similar way because I really liked how it starts, but then I made the rest of it more exciting, especially with the cranked-up second half, which has a kind of building relentlessness with different filtered basses and percussion.
Lyrically, well, my dad died in 2021, and in my speech at his funeral I recalled how once when I was probably about 12, we were driving, me and him, and it must have been just before Christmas because he talked about something that had annoyed him because it seemed a bit too commercial and not like the real spirit of Christmas – even though he wasn’t a churchgoer. He said he felt that, religion-wise, you didn’t need all the church and priests, but that you could feel God, or something like that, standing under a tree.
And in the funeral I said, I think because of that, that’s why I like the idea of God – if there is a God – not as an old bloke with a beard, but as a kind of warm ambient hum, like a mist, or something in the trees.
And so basically this song says that too.
And the part, ‘If I could do it all again, I’d still choose you’, was originally, unsurprisingly, about my present long-standing relationship, but then more recently I realized it could also be about my dad. Chronologically speaking, you could say that that does not make sense, but I think in a way it sort of does. It’s a slightly arrogant topsy-turvy suggestion, that actually rather than him leading to me, I was the spirit that chose him.”
October (Sculpture Projects extended remix)
“The extended mix is a straightforward 1980’s style longer mix where you get more stuff, more relentlessness, but also some added chimes, texture and birdsong which don’t appear in the more compact one.
When I was actually buying 12” singles in the actual 1980s, I would disdain the 7” and album versions of a song, and much preferred the 12” mix. And now I think, actually of course a well crafted 4 or 5 minutes is a marvellous thing unto itself. But, I do like having a longer version with more chances to enjoy the different parts.”
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Listen now to October (remix) on streaming services.
View other Sculpture Projects releases.