Leftside Wobble is a producer who has made a name for himself over the last couple of years for his reworks on a variety of classic tracks. He has been using his massively popular Soundcloud page to present his edits but is also a DJ who has been one of dance music’s un-sung heroes since he took over from Paul Oakenfold’s The Project Club back in ’88.

As well as being king of the edit, Leftside Wobble also remixes and produces so we asked him to do his thing on Proviant Audio’s Slutten På Alt. His wobbly acid disco mix has been getting the big one from names like Francois Kervorkian, Faith, The Dead Rose Music Company and Roberto Rodriguez.

It’s out on June 6 but you can listen here : Proviant Audio – Slutten På Alt (Leftside Wobble Mix) by Paper Recordings

He will also be playing at Manchester’s Band On The Wall for the mighty fine Stretch Disco this friday 10 June so HERE are the details on how to get in to get down.

Paper asked him to pick ten of his favourite edits, explain a little about the motivations behind them and what approach he took. Here’s what he said :

Esther Philips – All The Way Down
Esther Phillips – All The Way Down (Leftside Wobble Edit)-320K by Leftside Wobble
‘All The Way Down’ was a track that I first become familiar with from going out in the late eighties to a Giles Petersen/Patrick Forge run event at Dingwalls on a Sunday afternoon and was something that I always ended up playing at after parties. For the edit I wanted to ensure I didn’t mess with the integrity of the original production or flow of the songwriting; it was just about giving the track an extra added bump so that it could be mixed into peak time sets. The added rhythm elements are classic Roland sounds but I spend a lot of time tuning them and adding subtle saturation to help them sit well with the 70’s production style.

The Beatles – Tomorrow Never Knows
The Beatles – Tomorrow Never Knows (Leftside Wobble Edit) by Leftside Wobble
I’m a massive Beatles fan and have wanted to do an edit of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ ever since hearing the Chemical Brothers hammer it at The Heavenly Social club in the early nineties. There’s a large dose of trepidation involved though when dabbling with such classic material so I made a decision to not overdub with any modern drum machines, the rhythm track was beefed up using a drum break from the reprise version of Sergeant Peppers. Extending a 3 minute slice of psychedelia to over seven minutes was easier than expected though as the crazy production style of the original really lent itself to some heavy duty tape edit style chops to extend the groove. I other thing I was worried about adding was any keyboard overdubs but the 303 riffs seemed to fit so well and (to my mind anyway) the 303 is the sort of instrument the Beatles would have used on Revolver anyway – had it existed 1966!

Leftside Wobble – Pocket Angel
Pocket Angel (Stripped Edit) by Leftside Wobble
Most of my edits are very respectful to the original material but ‘Pocket Angel’ was the first I put together that really twisted the source material. Based on the Change classic ‘Angel In My Pocket’, the edit was heavily inspired by the heavy duty proto-house style cut-ups put together by Ron Trent. Whilst wanting to be sympathetic to the source material I wanted to create a more energetic flow and ‘tracky’ feel so that it could be mixed into peak time house sets as well as being something for the disco heads.

Leftside Wobble – Grapevine Boogie
Leftside Wobble – Grapevine Boogie by Leftside Wobble
Grapevine Boogie was a happy accident really. I wanted to create something that emulated the ‘freestyle’ edits of the mid eighties put together by people like the Latin Rascals so started chopping up a proto-house track by L.I.F.E. called ‘You’re All Played Out’. ‘Freestyle’ edits (also known as Latin hip hop) utilised lots of stutter style effects but this being a time before digital audio those effects were created using tape edit techniques (which gave the tracks a unique feel) – obviously having Ableton Live at hand made the process easier but I refused to use a stutter effect plugin and created the slices by hand. At the same time I had been playing with the acapella of Gladys Knight’s version of ‘Heard It Through The Grapevine’ so I had an existing Melodyne file that enabled me to layer the vocal of the edit and things just seemed to fall into place. It’s one of those tracks that has picked up support over time and will finally see an official release as part of the Horse Meat Disco Vol.3 compilation.

Idris Muhammad – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This
Idris Muhammad – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This (Leftside Wobble Edit) by Leftside Wobble
One of my all time favourite disco tracks, the edit stays very true to the original but completely alters the flow by creating an intro section based on the break from the original before the vocal kicks in. I think by altering the flow of the track in a manner that makes it easier to program into a set; a lot of people become exposed to classic tracks that they might not have been familiar with before (especially people who’ve only really been exposed the ‘repetitive beat’ nature of modern DJ sets). This was certainly the case with the Idris Muhummad edit.

Master C & J – Face It
Master C & J – Face It (Leftside Wobble Edit) by Leftside Wobble
Back in the late eighties I used to mix ‘Face It’ with Reece & Santonio’s ‘The Sound’ and so the edit was a recreation of that live mix. This seemed the perfect way to refresh such a perfect slice of raw, stripped back house music production but in a manner that reflected the spirit and energy of those early house music days. Really proud that it was selected for the DJ History’s ‘Trax Re-edited’ compilation project.

Bill Withers – Who Is He & What Is He To You
Who Is He & What Is He To You (Leftside Wobble Edit) by Leftside Wobble
This track has seen a number of edits that to pitched the Bill Withers original up to house tempo (two of the better versions are the Henrik Schwarz & G.A.M.M. ones) but I always felt they lost the soul of the original. The edit’s a really simple affair that layers the original production with new percussion elements and extends the groove slightly but attempts to maintain the integrity of the original.

Patti Jo – Ain’t No Love Lost
Ain’t No Love Lost (Leftside Wobble Edit) by Leftside Wobble
Patti Jo to my knowledge only made two tracks but what tracks they were. Both were written and produced by Curtis Mayfield and have been staples in my sets for many years. ‘Make Me Believe In You’ is the better known of the two (the Tom Moulton mix is one of his finest) but Ain’t No Love Lost, released the year before in 1972 is just as strong and if anything has even better arrangements. The motivation behind the edit was a simple one, the original track was sadly over before it began and I wanted a version to play out that was longer!

Leftside Wobble – Love Groove

This is based on Cerrone’s ‘Love In C Minor’. The original album version of this is a 14 minute affair that contains a horrendously cheesy song in amongst all of the wonderful groovy elements so the edit was a case of losing those fromage parts and building on the wonderful proto-house groove of the original. So often with edits you’re looking to extend a groove, creating a shorter version that flows naturally takes a completely different mind-set.
Leftside Wobble – Love Groove by Leftside Wobble

Doc Severinsen – I Wanna Be With You
Doc Severinsen – I Wanna Be With You (Leftside Wobble Edit) by Leftside Wobble
Another of those tracks with great memories, I first remember hearing Norman Jay play this at his legendary ‘Shake & Fingerpop’ parties in the late eighties. I think I love it all the more because it’s made by a chap who’s main fame is that he was the band leader for the Johnny Carson Show (the longest running chat show in American history). Much like the Patti Jo edit the original of this is shamefully short so the edit was primarily about extending that funky groove.