Tori Amos – Professional Widow

Armand's mix and Frank de Wulf's mix of Vamp very similar. both cracking mixes.

Armand's now classic mix was kickstarted by Atlantic A&R Johnny "D" De Mairo asking AVH to try something "different" with the Tori Amos parts. Armand often speaks of how he initially thought of the project as nothing important and indeed if it was worth his time.

The now legendary bassline is actually lifted straight from the original stems, buried in the folksy original. Armand married it with a percussion sample from John Gibbs "Trinidad", and created two huge drops which would later become the template for his UK Garage work and created his masterpiece. Johnny D was initially concerned about the length of the drops and put the "Just Da Funk Dub" on the flip to appease DJs concerned about their dancefloors.

Can't give any more (well deserved) praise that hasn't already been given here about Armand's mix.

I will add though that I was quite impressed by Mr. Roy's mix too, which sounds like it's a 'cousin' of Armand's mix. It uses the same baseline, vocals and breakdown...I thought this was quite unique as I don't recall ever seeing a situation where you have 2 different producers remixing a track on the same release run in the same year, and one remixer builds his remix using only elements from the other's remix. I guess the fact they based it on that mix instead of the original version (much more common practice) is just a further testament on how popular and great Armand's mix really was!

That little added synth bit they overdubbed was also a nice touch. Also love that one-off "this is the funk bass" sample that comes out of nowhere.