Roy Ayers ‘Brand New Feeling’ (Yoruba Soul Remixes)
Osunlade approaches Roy Ayers’ Brand New Feeling not as a DJ tool alone, but as a living conversation between jazz, soul, and Yoruba-rooted deep house. These are not simply stretched edits; they are fully reimagined spaces where Ayers’ warmth collides with Osunlade’s spiritual depth.
The first mix opens with rolling, organic percussion that immediately signals Yoruba Soul’s signature. A low-slung kick sets the foundation while shakers and hand drums shimmer at the edges. Ayers’ vibraphone chords hover like ghosts, while Clayton’s voice enters in fragments — urgent, raw, and soulful. Silvia Cox provides the counterbalance, her smoother phrasing melting into the groove. It’s tightly constructed, almost hypnotic, with a restraint that makes the eventual vocal swells hit harder. This version feels designed for late-night dancefloors where tension and release matter more than volume.
If Part 1 is the club tool, Part 2 is the ritual. Stretching beyond ten minutes, it breathes differently: space opens up, bass notes roll heavier, and the vocal interplay is given room to stretch. The production leans on subtle polyrhythms, congas and rimshots layering like incantations. Osunlade draws out Ayers’ harmonic motifs, looping vibraphone and keys into a trance-like mantra. Clayton sounds even more urgent here, while Cox drapes velvet lines across the rhythm. It’s a journey piece, best experienced start to finish — meditative but with a steady, physical pull.
Both instrumental takes strip away the vocals, allowing Osunlade’s rhythmic craft to shine. Without the human voice, the listener’s focus shifts to the intricacy of the percussion, the warmth of the chords, and the subtle atmospheric layers — windchime-like textures, synth pads that flicker like candlelight. DJs will find these especially useful, but they also reveal the depth of Osunlade’s production on its own terms.
Where many remixes of Ayers lean heavily on nostalgia or straight-up funk edits, Osunlade pushes the track into a different dimension: ceremonial, spiritual, and drenched in groove. He honors the original’s soulfulness while cloaking it in Yoruba Soul’s distinct language — deep house as ritual, percussion as heartbeat, voice as invocation.
This is not background music, it’s devotional: an immersion into rhythm and spirit that feels both timeless and utterly of the moment. These remixes expand Brand New Feeling into a meditation on rhythm, ancestry, and Ayers’ eternal groove.
Out Now • Label: BBE • Out Nw • Catalog: BBE535SDG5
Martin Madigan 5
