Legendary DJ Carl Cox has long cited ‘The Phantom’ by Renegade Soundwave as one of his all time favourite tracks. He first heard it at a rave in Biggin Hill, played by DJ Frankie Valentine, and immediately had to seek it out. “This record blew my mind,” Carl recalls. “It was like indie meets rock techno punk. What I love about it is that when those guys made that record, they didn’t give a fuck. Even today, there’s nothing that sounds like it at all.”
Carl has played the original, first released in 1989, in Ibiza numerous times over the years, and when he heard about the ‘Renegade Soundwave Rewired’ project he was one of the first to jump onboard. Keeping his mix exclusively to himself until this month, Carl has been rinsing his rework at festivals and during his residency at UNVRS in Ibiza across the summer to huge uproar.
Now the time has come for Carl’s rewiring of ‘The Phantom’ to be unleashed into the world. The word legend is banded about too much in electronic music, but foundational UK DJ Carl Cox is, undisputedly, a bona fide legend. After more than four decades in music he’s still absolutely at the top of his game and remains one of the biggest DJs in the world.
Carl’s rework of ‘The Phantom’ kicks off with a familiar breakbeat pattern a bit faster than the original, before the surging bassline and hauntological, dubbed out dancehall toasting refrain enter the fray. The original ‘The Phantom’ sampled The Clash’s ‘White Riot’ and was cleared by the band at the time. In this Carl Cox update, Clash fan Barry Ashworth delivers the chant in the inimitable style he brings to his long serving Dub Pistols band every week. Making judicious use of the elements, Carl’s update powers to climax in the second half. It’s a classic made into a future classic.
The original release of ‘The Phantom’ was sampled by The Prodigy on early rave tune ‘Everybody In The Place’, and in a timely moment of serendipity Carl has been playing vinyl sets with The Prodigy of late on their Warriors Dance tour.
The vinyl cut of Carl’s rewiring of ‘The Phantom’ drops mid October on Jack Said What.
Renegade Soundwave are one of the most influential and innovative acts to emerge from the UK’s late 1980s electronic underground. They refused to recognise genre boundaries, blending sound system culture with heavyweight bass, breakbeats, house, industrial textures, punk attitude and dub production to create a sound that was years ahead of its time. Landmark releases including ‘The Phantom’, ‘Ozone Breakdown’, ‘Women Respond To Bass’, ‘Probably A Robbery’ and the seminal album ‘RSW In Dub’ helped shape the DNA of UK electronic music.
Now the RSW brand is back to inspire and delight a new generation. Founding member Danny Briottet approached the Jack Said What team with new music, and also the idea of reworking some of the RSW back catalogue. ‘RSW Rewired’ was born.
A veritable who’s who of beats and bass culture have also reworked choice RSW cuts. ‘RSW Rewired’ is not a remix album in the traditional sense. Every invited artist worked from newly recorded stems created specifically for the project, giving them the freedom to deconstruct, reshape and rebuild each track into something entirely their own while preserving the spirit of the original compositions.
The rewirings began dropping every week, starting with Leeroy Thornhill’s breakbeat take on ‘Ozone Breakdown’ on September 10th and Nookie & Binary State’s redo of ‘Thunder’, a modern-day rave classic. Dub fiends Gaudi & Don Letts followed a week later with their heavyweight rework of ‘Wax Wane’ that comes over like a King Tubby original.
And now is the time for King Carl Cox. These first four rewirings are only the tip of the iceberg. A veritable avalanche of cracking reinterpretations are set to follow on from these first four varied cuts.
“My rewire isn’t leaving my side,” says Carl of his ‘Phantom’ rework. “No way, no how. When I play it, I just watch the dancefloor to see what they do with it. If it doesn’t get played this year, it’ll get played next year. If it doesn’t get played next year, it’ll get played the year after that.”
‘The Phantom’ by Renegade Soundwave, rewired by Carl Cox, is out now. Stream and purchase here.