Sidelined by the monumental debut title track, The Overload and the consistent collaborations that have stemmed from 100% Endurance, Yard Act have no short supply of quality tracks. Pour Another feels as though it was knocked down the pecking order by those aforementioned eponymous antics and Elton John or David Thewlis appearances. Stapling themselves to the role of most collaborative band bar Gorillaz, their recent trust in Mad Professor on the remix of Pour Another, the nicely titled Pour More, is a good overdub for the album that reignites the mainstream of a remix-oriented album. That good stuff hasn’t been hit on since Remix Ed from Jarv Is, a mixed bag of results.
Far from that though is Pour More, a real solid remix of a track that has enough vibrancy and instruments to yank something good and proper out of. Mad Professor works his magic on a track that has its meaning extracted and reignited with repetition, good beats and an intensity switch up. At the heart of any good remix is a sense of the band themselves under a new light of whatever said remixer feels appropriate or important. “Watching the world burn” repeating its way to the end of the track does well to form a lyrical basis for the Mad Professor himself to work his magic. What magic it is, those beats that linger over an echoed effect of James Smith’s vocals are superb.
But much of Pour More engages with the immense talents of Mad Professor as a remix master. His style and usual pace are engaged with and pushed into overdrive. Yard Act have managed a track that thoroughly lends itself to Mad Professor, whose work here is just as phenomenal as the immense remixes he made of Massive Attack all those years ago. Prerequisite moments of remix standards are pushed to the next level with this Yard Act remix. Much of that comes from echoing the lyrics of Smith, whose vocal presence is given the overdub of an extreme variety. It sounds immense and there is a keen adaptation here for Mad Professor, who notes the repetition that works so well for the remix. Yard Act do not spring to mind when asked the question of “which dub/reggae artists should be given a go?”, but now they do. All thanks to Mad Professor, whose work here leans into the usually vocal-heavy tracks Yard Act creates.
Key to the success of the remix is that of those vocals. Or rather, their absence here. Yard Act are no stranger to some quality instrumentals (just crank Tall Poppies up and hear Sam Shjipstone’s guitar riffs for clues to that). Although they are no strangers to it, what is strange is hearing their work stripped of a punchy lyrical swing. Smith takes the backseat on this Mad Professor overdub, as the legendary mixer works his magic and hones in on those lingering instrumental qualities that Yard Act so often provide. Pour More is a fantastic way to blow the speakers, and if The Overdub holds this level of quality, then Yard Act will be dragging some quality remixes into the limelight.
