Sally Shapiro “Sundown” (Nite Jewel Remix)

29 May 2013 — Henning Lahmann

All that focus on Ramona Gonzalez as one of underground's finest voices is certainly justified, but for me personally, it's always been Nite Jewel the producer who did the trick for me. Apparently, Good Evening was not for everyone, but the album's unapologetic italo sheen has brightened way too many northern summer nights to ever lose its standout status in my collection. Apart from that, Gonzalez is also a slightly underappreciated grade A remixer, having delivered excellent reinterpretations of tracks by luminaries such as HEALTH, Caribou, or Tomas Barfod. Her latest commissional work is a take on "Sundown", a standout on Sally Shapiro's Somewhere Else LP, which was released in February. Given their shared italo disco affection, the combination of the two artists is of course almost too fitting. Even more notable, then, that they land on two entirely different spots of the sound's spectrum. Where Shapiro's original is candidly wistful and yearning, Nite Jewel picks up a little more pace and decidedly puts more emphasis on the 'disco' side of things, and the result is surprisingly addictive piece that will force you on the 'floor without dispelling the misery that had made you come here alone in the first place.

Nite Jewel's rework of "Sundown" is part of the Elsewhere remix collection, which features versions by The Field, Henning Fürst, Little Boots, Young Galaxy, and others, and is out now on Paper Bag Records.