IT felt pretty good first time around in 1998 when Sonique’s anthem It Feels So Good took global dance floors by storm and earned her a UK number one hit in the charts.
The British singer, DJ, BRIT winner and former member of 90s band S’Express, is just as excited all these years later as her club anthem has been re-imagined for modern floors by Marseille’s finest, DJ and producers Matt Sassari and HUGEL.
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Sonique told us: “The moment I heard Matt Sassari and HUGEL’s version of It Feels So Good, I was completely blown away. They brought such a fresh energy to the track while keeping the essence of what made it so special to begin with.
“I instantly knew I had to jump on it and make it official – it felt like the perfect way to reimagine the song for a whole new audience.”
We caught up with Sonique this week and asked her to compile and talk us through a playlist of other great tunes from yesteryear that have had new life breathed into them.
Listen to the music below and read what she had to say about the tracks.
Fugees – Ready Or Not (DJ Aphrodite DnB Remix)
A lot of people don’t know this but I originally came from Drum n Bass. Back in the day I was hanging out with all of the Drum n Bass people.
First of all, we were having this conversation about which Drum n Bass, Dubstep, from which cart – Europe, or The Americans, or the English are better.
Well I’m going to tell you right now – no bias here – the English are better. This is why I adore this one, because to me it’s just raw DRUM N BASS.
AC/DC – TNT (KVSH Remix)
You might be able to tell I have a little bit of a weak spot for rock music and rock guitar.
But I think when you have an iconic song like that and you manage to bring it into the dance world and make someone like me who loves dance and rock happy, I think it’s a great achievement.
Hearts of Desire – Sonique Remix
Chris Brown – Beautiful People (Benny Bennassi Remix)
It’s so uplifting and takes you up – but you’d never expect it. You’re actually expecting this really slow track but he has managed to somehow bring all those love chords that ignite all your good feelings and make you feel amazing so that’s the reason this remix is very significant to me.
The Prodigy – Pendulum (Voodoo people remix)
How amazing is that? The drums? Real Live? The guitar? So live, so rock, so alive.
I love all styles of music so when you do a remix that takes you into a different era, or dimension or category in music it’s nice – that’s all I can say!
Sergeant Slick – Gimme Gimme (The Freejack Remix)
This one is great because Abba back in the 70s was amazing so it’s so nice to have them brought back into the 90s and 2000s with such a great uplifting disco vibe.
Pete Tong, Jules Buckley Orchestra, LG Giobbi ft Ultra Nate Free
It’s difficult find anything wrong with this mix. It’s got everything that’s real, live, orchestral.
It’s an iconic song, great vocalist, great lyrics and obviously the legend himself – Pete Tong.
REM – Losing My Religion (Hardwell Remix)
Now I wouldn’t lose my religion but it would defo get me more religious.
This track is amazing, obviously it’s a great track from REM – they smashed it anyway- but the way this one was remixed it really brought it into the clubs and that was a difficult thing to do but he did a really good job of it – so well done.
Donna Summer – I Feel Love (Patrick Cowley Remix)
This is easy. The first original mix of this, someone asked Giorgio ‘Dude, what do you think about this track? What would you do to make this track better?’ and he answered ’The only thing that I would do would be to have a longer mix of it’ and so this is how this mix came about and it’s about 16 mins long.
Who is not going to like a 16 minute version of a track that was only two and a half minutes originally?
Matt Sassari, HUGEL ft Sonique – Feels So Good
There’s a bit of a story behind this one 😉 I heard this and was like what’s going on with this? How is this happening? Oh my god it’s so good,
What is going on with this – how is that not my voice on there? Oh my god, can I get my voice on this!?
Please, please, please! I’m blessed enough that I was able to reach out to these guys, they agreed that it would be great to have my voice on the track which made me extremely happy and now here we are!
The Loft Club – Heart’s Desire ft. Sonique (Sonique Remix)
This is a song that someone had already done and they came to me and asked me if I’d be able to provide some vocals for the track as a duet.
I listened to the track and I really liked how uplifting it could be so I lent the vocals to really try and lean towards that uplifting vibe.
I always felt this was a really great thing about, again, bringing rock and dance together – but this time it was about bringing dance to rock.
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