During the 1980s, guitarist Barry Reynolds was a member of Island Records’ legendary Compass All Stars. Together with his colleagues Sticky Thompson, Robbie Shakespeare, Sly Dunbar, Mikey Chung and Wally Badarou, he helped create countless ground breaking hits for the label, from their state-of-the-art Nassau-based studios. In the process, the group also created a distinctive and hugely influential – oft copied, never matched – sound. 

Reynolds collaborated closely with Marianne Faithfull, but he released only one solo LP, 1982’s “I Scare Myself”. One of the album tracks, “Til The Doctor Gets Back”, was subsequently rediscovered at around the turn of the millennium by DJs such as Manchester’s Moonboots, who made it a modern day Balearic favourite. 

The song is a slow, bubbling shot of strange, dubby, new wave skanking.  Hooked up to a clock tick-tocking-like rhythm, the production, care of the equally legendary Alex Sadkin, is packed with tactile mixing desk trickling and squelching. Its groove very similar to Will Powers’ “Adventures In Success” – another Compass Point Balearic classic. 

A few years back, a brilliant, previously unreleased instrumental unofficially surfaced, and perhaps it was this that inspired Joel Martin and Matt Edwards aka Quiet Village to take their own crack at the track. Their version is respectful of the original and effectively an extended “disco mix”. Spacing things out, teasing with the melody, increasing the tempo and injecting a little extra dance floor energy. Mad Professor’s remix, though, is far freakier and heavier. Beginning with a big synth intro, the bottom end grumbles and growls, and stripped back, the pseudo-slapped nature of the B-line becomes more apparent. The beats are sparse, but blown up in size, into huge body-moving collisions. The edges a tad hammer on anvil metallic. 

Quiet Village’s “Till The Doctor Gets Back” can be ordered directly from Bandcamp.