The Cure and the Cause - Fish Go Deep & Tracey K

The 20: November 2007

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Featured Review #10

The Cure and the Cause

Fish Go Deep & Tracey K [Strictly R...

#10 in this month's The 20

Written by: Terry Church
Filed under: The 20: fish go deep strictly rhythm tracey k

Defected’s PR machine always loves to trumpet the label’s next single as though it’s the most important release since God dropped Jesus on the Earth, and Fish Go Deep’s ‘The Cure & The Cause’ in 2006 was no different.

It apparently ushered in ‘a new era for dance music’, the urban house era.

Defected even released a mix compilation called ‘Urban House’ to fuel the hype machine, with ‘The Cure & The Cause’ as its headlining track.

But anyone who has ever heard a soulful house record before can hear that Fish Go Deep’s record is just that – a deep funky house record, like much of the music by Moloko.

That’s not to say ‘The Cure & The Cause’ is not a great record, but the ‘urban house’ tag was just a politically correct way of trying to appeal to a new demographic.

At the time, a backlash was beginning to form against the grime and garage club scenes in London which were notoriously aggressive.

The pirate radio stations of London started playing less and less grime, and more and more funky soulful house to cater for the kids who were tired of the aggressive and angry rants of grime.

Grime club nights and urban music nights began to get replaced by funky house and soulful nights.

Fish Go Deep’s ‘The Cure & The Cause’ became the anthem of this change.

And now Defected have re-released the track with a bunch of new remixes on its re-kindled Strictly Rhythm.

Continuing with Strictly’s current tribal drum formation, The Cube Guys deliver a driving house remix that’s big on drums.

By reworking Tracey K’s vocal, The Cube Guys’ version is almost unrecognizable from the original.

There’s also an excellent Balearic Soul remix that adds some slow-burning pads and staccato violins to the equation.

DJ Meme Philly offers three disco-focused versions including the 1970s-sounding Suite Mix.

There’s more than one reason to rediscover this classic house record.

And for those of you who don’t know what urban house is, just listen to Dennis Ferrer’s original remix to get the inside track on what is supposedly an exciting new genre.