Playout! Music is proud to present DJ Harvey’s remix of My Hippie Ain’t Hip, the second single to be released from Admiral Freebee’s current album The Honey & The Knife. When it came to scouting the right person for this peculiar job, we could’ve easily asked current indie darling nr 357 or this week’s hottest rave phenomenon. Instead, we opted for the midas touch of one of club culture’s most enigmatic figureheads. Even if you don’t know Harvey’s legacy, it’s all around you.

It’s in the versatile, dance-not-dance orientated output of DFA records, it was in the birth of house music in the UK and in the current resurgence of Balearic beats. In every disco edit you might or might not scooped up in the past few years. In every no holds barred approach to deejaying.

For an extensive bio of mister Harvey Bassett, there’s plenty of corners on the internet to explore – let’s focus on the music instead.

Although on his fourth album Admiral Freebee returns to his musical roots, it’s not the intimate, coming-of-age affair one could expect from such pretext. It’s an album bursting with the smell of freedom, the hunger of an explorer, the spirit of young & restless. Featuring artwork by the renowned Ed Templeton (currently holding court with a giant retrospective at the SMAK museum in Ghent) and an impressive collection of road tested tunes, The Honey & the Knife has already been hailed as Freebee’s best, most personal and versatile output.

You could say DJ Harvey and ‘The Admiral’ are kindred spirits, and not only because of their shared fancy of facial ruff. They both don’t shy away from experimentation or seeking out new paths. They both find inspiration outside the box and like to push themselves over new boundaries. Freebee proved so with his back catalogue of albums, Harvey does it with his band Map Of Africa, his DJ sets and edits collection and his remixes, most notably for LCD Soundsystem, House Of House and Super_Collider.

Here he turns the original swampy blues stomp of Hippie’s Ain’t Hip into a raging assault of acid rock, keeping the rough edges of its guitar riff intact and building pulsating synth twirls on top. Occasionally, Freebee’s characteristic how pushed through the sonic bravado – a total 7.28 minutes of pushing forward without any pitstops. It’s raw, it rocks, it has soul. It’s DJ Harvey.

artwork by Ed Templeton

Feedback:

"Now that 'nu-disco' (or 'cosmic' if you have post-graduate degree) is too often a trendy conformism, or a bearded fathomless snobism, you need the real thing don't you? Guitar and electronics is always a tough one, I usually tend not to mix my pleasures but if there is one who can pull it, it's Harvey. This dips all that mellow balear-hippism into proper biker's grease. it is not polite nor mellow, it rocks (almost in a 'live and let die'way) and reminds you firmly that you should never wash your jeans.' Ivan Smagghe

"This remix of Harvey is DOPE!" Aeroplane

"superrrrrrrrr cheers" Chloë

Phanks! Lovely Harvey remix" Todd Terje

"killer Harvey rmx !!! no one else could have succeeded so well in melting the rock orginal with some unorthodox 2010 house/disco/acid/whatever electronics. Final result is daring to say the least. A special record." Geoffroy/Mugwump

really like harveys mix to play out. original is nice as well. Nice to see harvey doing more remixes again recently! Will play for sure" Headman

One word: AWESOME! Definitely in all our sets!!!! The Glimmers

Really like harveys mix to play out. original is nice aswell. Headman

Cracking mix from harvey, wonderful! Silicon Soul

Great!!! Charles Webster

Harvey steps it up a gear and takes it to the a club friendly version, I will be playing this ALOT. It's just beautiful. Thank you so much for sending this to me, as it is something I'd be happy to buy... Kenny Hawkes