SHHE – Maps (Sophia Loizou remix): Track Premiere
Listen to the Sophia Loizou remix of Maps by SAY Award longlisted artist SHHE, and watch the accompanying visuals created by Su Shaw and Tommy Perman
This Friday (9 Oct), Su Shaw releases Re:, a collaborative reimagining of her eponymous SAY Award-longlisted debut album as SHHE. Much like SHHE, Re: is a stunning listen with a completely different feel as collaborators explore new sounds and grooves, building on the textures already present in the original tracks.
Today, The Skinny are delighted to be sharing a first listen of Sophia Loizou’s gorgeous remix of Maps, which you can listen to in the below SoundCloud player (click here if it's not displaying correctly). "I was really drawn to the tonal qualities and textures of Su's voice," Loizou tells us. "A lot of my own work focuses heavily on the textural so it felt like the most natural place for me to start. I listened carefully to the way that the voice moves and the natural shapes within it, which I then used as the basis for the structure – building around it to create an atmospheric environment while retaining the lyrical integrity."
"The version of Maps that featured on [SHHE] was already a rework, it had been released in a different form under an older project years ago," Shaw divulges. "The only thing that I had kept was the vocal, the rest of the track had been completely deconstructed. Sophia and I talked about how surroundings can influence and shape identities. I loved her approach to Maps and the way she used the vocal to build a new environment, there's still a familiarity, a sense of its original identity."
While it is still very much recognisable as a version of Shaw’s original, it feels far more ethereal, with an added weight you can almost feel pressing down on you as you listen, especially in the first third of the track. The way Loizou plays with, stretches and manipulates Shaw’s vocal throughout, as well as the introduction of a scuffling breakbeat drum line is all very satisfying, begging for repeat listens.
As well as sharing the track today, we’re also delighted to be sharing its accompanying visual, which you can watch in the above YouTube player (click here if it’s not displaying correctly). Created by Shaw and friend and collaborator Tommy Perman, it forms part of a 33-minute-long visual which will accompany Re: in full.
"Tommy and I had been talking about making something physical that could be released alongside the album," Shaw tells us. "I wanted to revisit the concept of reworking and reinterpreting the tracks with the artists who were involved. Some were friends who I’d already worked with but others I hadn’t met before, so it was a first introduction after the album was finished. There's a tendency to release a project and begin work on the next immediately after. I wanted to do the opposite with this record and restart the conversation around why and how it came together. A series of these conversations will be published later in the year – format to be confirmed."
Re: is released on Friday 9 October via One Little Independent Records