Irvine Welsh’s Men In Love disco album sparks a new wave of remixes from Hilit Kolet, Black Octopus and Renude19

It’s 30 years since the Trainspotting movie was released onto a largely unsuspecting public. Based on the cult novel by Irvine Welsh, it was made into an award-winning film directed by Danny Boyle which became a smash hit on release, propelling ‘Born Slippy’ by Underworld high into the charts and making household names of its reprobate characters Begbie, Renton, Spud and Sick Boy.

Last year Irvine wrote the immediate sequel to the Trainspotting book, Men In Love, and also — uniquely — wrote a disco album in cahoots with the Sci-Fi Soul Orchestra to accompany its release. Both went down a storm. Irvine talked about the book and the album across all manner of media — from interviews on Chris Hawkins and Craig Charles’s BBC 6Music shows to appearances on Channel Four’s Sunday Brunch, BBC Radio Four, BBC News, the Guardian podcast and many more.

Meanwhile, pieces ran in a plethora of publications such as The Face, NME, Rolling Stone, The Independent, The Scotsman, The Telegraph, The Times and lots more. Irvine also went on a UK tour to promote the book and album simultaneously, participating in Q&As in bookshops, record shops and the like, and hosted launch parties in some of the cities such as London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Brighton and Liverpool. Book and album were indeed both lapped up. The book hit the best sellers lists, while the album shot to No.3 in the Independent Album Breakers Chart, No.28 in the Independent Albums Chart, and No.72 in the Physical Albums Chart.

Tracks have been played on the radio numerous times internationally, and have had fantastic positive responses from much of the DJ fraternity — including some of the scene’s disco dons. Remixes have already come from Rob Davy, Nick Reach-Up vs Steve Mac and the legendary Greg Wilson, and now it’s time for the next set of reimaginings.

London-based Hilit Kolet seems to channel Danny Tenaglia wandering into Moodymann territory on her overhaul of ‘Dreams’. A discursive deep underground monster, it makes judicious use of the track’s title and some wailing by singer Louise Marshall as it powers along with some typical New York sleaze. Hilit has had some of her refixes officially released by the likes of Laurent Garnier and Basement Jaxx, and is tipped constantly for big things by many in the techno cognoscenti. This remix of ‘Dreams’ doesn’t disappoint.

Brighton techno aficionados Black Octopus also rise to the occasion for their overhaul of ‘Love At Last’, a bouncy bassline propelling their dreamy, floaty technoid reinterpretation into deep melodic territory that you can lose yourself in on the floor.

And Renude19 & Alex Ball turn in a low-slung chugger for their remix of ‘Dreams’, one of the most luxuriant tracks on the ‘Men In Love’ album. Calling on chiming synth and a dubbed out bassline, they produce a mid-paced groover that will have hips wiggling and pelvises cavorting.

At least one of these three disco delirium overhauls will surely tickle your fancy!