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Charles Webster – The Spell (Burial Mix)
Charles Webster with the first track from his first major solo album in two decades, ‘Decision Time’. This first single ‘The Spell’ also features a remix from Burial and the vocals of Ingrid Chavez.
Operating in house music since the mid ’80s, Charles Webster is revered as something like the producer’s producer, spoken about in the same breath as Larry Heard or Ron Trent amongst the DJ cognoscenti, releasing music over the years under 30 different pseudonyms with over 500 remixes.
After moving to San Francisco in the late nineties, he created an album under the alias Presence entitled ‘All Systems Gone’. The “pillowy” sound design of this classic is cited as a key influence on the music of Burial. For this track, Burial has paid a further tribute, contributing a rare remix, additionally to a dub mix from Charles. This track also includes the words of Prince muse Ingrid Chavez. who famously wrote the spoken word poetry in Madonna’s ‘Justify My Love’.
“Decision Time” is Charles first major solo record since 2001’s “Born On The 24th July”. With an album of this quality and the 20-year cycles of electronic culture, it feels like this is the perfect moment to celebrate the brilliance of his legacy. From citing Rickie Lee Jones as a key influence, storytelling and song writing has always been important for Charles as he used house music as the medium. From the down-tempo impressionistic soul of “This Is Real” that moves like slow morphing clouds across the soundscape to the irresistible two-step and impressionistic words of Ingrid Chavez on “The Spell” a new generation of ears deserve to discover the influential underground sound world of Charles Webster.
Releases October 9, 2020
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