INSOMNIA by
Philipp Rehm (b) featuring Switch Summer (voc) & Frank Wardenier (perc)

You can stream the audio version of the Yoors „Insomnia“ version of Faithless, in this post and on all online streaming portals like Spotify.
@Phil Rehm initiated a revival of this iconic, chart-topping, 90s classic, UK house song. Transformed in a powerful tribal bass version featuring Frank Wardenier (Percussionist, Metropole Orkest) and British rapper/songwriter Switch Summer - and lots of bass from Philipp Rehm.

Philipp Rehm:
„We wanted to achieve a cover song as close to the original as possible but we also did not want to compromise our musical skills. So I adapted the most distinctive synthesizer parts of the song on bass. We developed powerful percussion beats and added some elements to go deeper into our heavy percussion and bass sound setup. It's modern produced – but everything you hear are real hand-played instruments.

Insomnia was one of my favorite songs in the 90s - in the 90s I went through my teenage years, started making music and playing in bands, and had quite a diverse musical taste. So I've been jamming this song on the bass for quite a while - that iconic synth hook and synth bass riff. I also have the number in my solo program, where I then play it instrumentally: bass and live electronics.

When Yoors asked me to contribute a cover track for the first Music Challenge, this song came to mind. I wanted to do a version with spoken word and hand-played real instruments instead of synthesizers. Fat, full grooves, but hand-played, with bass and percussions. And with respect to the original: I adapted the most distinctive instrumental elements 1: 1 on the bass: the synth hook, the synth bass and the harmonies. The percussion figures contain own ideas, that I recorded with Frank Wardenier. I added a powerful groove part to the track, to give it a trance-like, never-ending outro, with a funky bass riff, ultra tight percussions and dub elements in the vocals.

Everything is hand-played – of course, it is produced and mixed in a modern way and the kick drum has got a bit of electro oomph - but the rest are vocals, djembes, cajons, shakers and, of course, bass. No synthesizers were used."

Philipp Rehm met percussionist Frank Wardenier when they went together on tour for four months with Dutch Opera singer @Tania Kross.
And British singer Switch Summer he got in touch with through his wife, who met him at a Dream Hack convention in Rotterdam.

"I've been following Switch Summer's music for a longer time and love his mix of HipHop and Afrobeat with deep and tasty lyrics. I was very happy that he got involved with this spoken word from Insomnia, because stylistically it is different from rap. I was really excited to hear how he interpreted the lyrics."
Philipp Rehm

Marcus "Switch Summer" Balogun (UK)
Switch Summer is a young black creative rapper/song writer from Basingstoke, U.K. He has been a musician since the age of 14 and draws inspiration from different life experiences and Black narratives. He has supported homegrown acts to mainstream artists such as Wretch 32, Ms Dynamite, Rudimental, Krept & Konan and rap legend Nas.

Frank Wardenier (NL)
Frank Wardenier is an astonishingly versatile and spontaneous drummer who maintains an immense variety of sounds, not least through his work with the Metropol-Orkest. He has worked with the Yellowjackets, Toots Thielemanns, Giovanni Hidalgo, Candy Dulfer, John Scofield, Jim Beard, Randy Brecker, Paquito de Rivera, Snarky Puppy, Mike Stern, Cindy Lauper, UB40 and Joe Cocker. Wardenier studied jazz percussion, vibraphone and classical percussion at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He has also been heard often with the wind orchestra of the Royal Netherlands Air Force, for which he has also written arrangements.

In the next week we will introduce these artist even more on our YoorsMusic page and will you be able to check them out further.

You can stream Insomnia now in this Yoors post, Spotify and other streaming platforms.


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