Josh Wink ‘When A Banana Was Just A Banana’ (album)
Released February 2009
(CD = mixed / Vinyl = unmixed / Digital = unmixed)
Ovum Recordings
Josh Wink releases his fourth studio album ‘When A Banana Was Just A Banana’.
“In a nutshell, it speaks really of the loss of innocence of music. Music was just music when I was growing up. Nobody was ridiculed or had views of ‘I only listen to this one kind of music’ - I grew up listening to everything! Today, so many people tend only listen to one style of music with a strong opinion of why... I miss the innocence of how it was... Like when you were younger, ‘A Banana Was Just A Banana’.” - Josh Wink
Philadelphia born and based, Josh Wink, is one of the true pioneers of techno, house and allied styles - blurring the definitions as a Producer and DJ. More than 20 years have passed since Wink first came into public conscious via the electronic music explosion and he still takes trends, makes trends and breaks trends; unafraid to walk the border between stylistic boundaries as he experiments and gets you under his influence.
Rewind to 1989, aged 19 and a budding young DJ on the underground ‘rave’ scene, Wink’s first ever EP ‘Tribal Confusion’ came on Strictly Rhythm, under the moniker E-Culture. More releases followed and in 1994 he formed his own label ‘Ovum Recordings’. In 1995, Wink released three hugely influential tracks ‘Don’t Laugh’ ‘I Am Ready’ (as Size 9) and ‘Higher State Of Consciousness’, pioneering in style and still played today. He released his debut album in 1996 ‘Left Above The Clouds’ (Nervous) and followed with his second Long Player in 1998 ‘HearHere’ (Ovum) - working with pioneering vocalists; Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Caroline Crawley of 4AD fame, and local Philadelphia artist Ursula Rucker. Wink’s huge mix compilation ‘Profound Sounds Volume 1’ (Ovum) was released in 1999 and due to the success and integrity of the series, is now up to Volume 3 and still going strong.
Wink's releases have the unique quality of being revered and championed by the most underground to the mainstream, creating memorable songs that have no time or genre restraints; sparking fads in production techniques and generating innovation worldwide.
Continuing his staple releases into this decade, in 2000 he sampled Lil Louis’ ‘French Kiss’ to create the international player ‘How’s Your Evening So Far?’ (FFRR/Ovum), following with ‘Superfreak’ (Ovum), ‘516 Acid (Ovum), ‘Oakish’ (Ovum), ‘Swirl’(Ovum), ‘Have To Get Back’ (M-Nus), Thick As Thieves’ (Poker Flat) and Wink’s third artist album ’20 To 20’ (Ovum).
Remixing is something that Wink is very aware of and is asked to have his production hand involved in many projects, yet has chosen to be protective and accept only few. Over the years he has crafted remixes for the likes of Radiohead, Dépêche Mode, Slam, Moby, Dave Clarke, Ladytron, Chicken Lips, Lenny Kravitz, Gus Gus and Radio Slave.
In March 2008, Wink unleashed the first single to be taken from ‘When A Banana Was Just A Banana’ - ‘Stay Out All Night’ defied the current music trend and was immediately made ‘Essential New Tune’ by Pete Tong on his Radio 1 show, where he classed it as “the biggest dance record in the world right now”, as well as huge DJ support from Dubfire, Laurent Garnier, Steve Bug, Loco Dice and many more.
In February 2009 comes the full Long Player. ‘When A Banana Was Just A Banana’ is presented in three formats, the CD format is in a continuous DJ mix style, whilst the vinyl and digital formats are unmixed and perfect for DJs and dancefloors.
‘Airplane Electronique’ begins the ride, inspired from when Wink played the ‘Piknik Electronik’ festival in Montreal - “a mixture of house and tech with a twisted feel”. ‘Counter Clock’ is up next (to be released in February with a remix from Chris Leibing) - “I was listening to a set of (DJ) Dixon and noticed how slow and groovy most of the set was, which influenced me to make an equally slow track, yet keep a heavily twisted and intense feeling”. ‘What Used To Be Called Used To Be’ is an acid groover based on Wink’s un-released remix of Someone Else’s - ‘Lowdown Brittle’. ‘Jus Right’ - with the original at 17 minutes in length, is a perfect summer release: “Reminds me of some old French 80’s disco house sounding thing, which I'm a sucker for! It’s not what people expect from me, but at the same time it is - deep and pumping”. ‘Dolphin Smack’ - “To me it sounds like a dolphin on heroin, hence ‘Dolphin Smack’. If I get the right crowd, this breakdown is magical, as it's very OUT THERE. I’m very excited to finally release it.” ‘Minimum 23’ - “Marries the various sounds of USA style house and my electronic-tweaky-ness of production, gets insane response on the dance-floor- Jackin-House Tech!” ‘Everybody To The Sun’ - “Hypnotic. No bass-line here, but the bass of the drum every four measures gets the ladies hips going.” ‘Hypnoslave’ - “Hypnotic as hell!” And finally, ‘Stay Out All Night’ - “I was listening to a lot of 90's NYC and Chicago house (which I'm very influenced by) when I made this track. I had a lot of fun bringing a bit of jazzy rhodes lines, jackin house beats and a deep ass bass to my sets. I played it for Matty B (Ovum) and he thought it would be a great idea to leak it out at the 2008 WMC. We gave it to 15 people and the magic started there...”
*For full track descriptions and more from Josh Wink, please click http://butterflyrebel.blogspot.com
‘When A Banana Was Just A Banana’ (album) is released February 2009 on Ovum Recordings
‘Counter Clock’ (single) is released February with a remix from Chris Leibing
CD Tracklist
1) Airplane Electronique
2) Counter Clock 319
3) What Used To Be Called Used To Be
4) Jus' Right
5) Dolphin Smack
6) Minimum 23
7) Everybody To The Sun
8) Hypnoslave
9) Stay Out All Night
Go check out
www.joshwink.comGo buy your copy at
www.amazon.com ,
www.beatport.com ,
www.itunes.com , or
www.hmv.com