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Music

Premiere: Take Off Your Clothes and Listen to a Re-Done Bedouin Soundclash Classic with Jesse Royal

Everything sounds better with an island rhythm.

It's a pretty well established fact that everything sounds better with a steel drum, and apparently Bedouin Soundclash is no exception. The band is releasing their sophomore album Sounding a Mosaic on vinyl in celebration of its 10 year anniversary, and they decided to recruit Bob Marley's guitarist Earl "Chinna" Smith to give the classic song a sunnier feeling.

"Ever since I heard “When The Night Feels My Song” I always thought there was a slowed down reggae version hiding in there. So on my never ending quest to write off trips to Kingston, last time I went I booked some studio time to work on some covers of it," said co-producer Jeff Wave over email. "Recorded at the legendary Harry J’s, where all the pre-Tuff Gong Bob Marley albums were recorded, I took the song to the band and they thought it was a classic from the 70s, but had never heard it. When I told them the singer was white they wouldn't believe me, which was pretty funny. Within 30 minutes they were recording the song. I had to get back to Montreal cause I contracted some deathly illness. So I was sick as fuck on a Skype connection from my bed in Montreal trying to manage the session. Jesse kept messing up the line “pushes me west” to “pushing me east.” Somehow between a huge migraine, a crappy internet connection, and two competing accents, I finally understood that he was answering my pointing out of this with “the black man don’t go west”… fair enough… so east it is."