Listen: LAYLA - "Black Mud" (Aquilo Remix)

17 June 2014, 11:45 | Written by Jon Putnam

(Tracks)

(LAYLA)

Wrapping yourself up in swollen layers of piano and strings to shield yourself as you extricate the stinging burn and acrid taste of emotional hurt is a well worn pop music tradition.

On the title track from her latest EP, Black Mud, London songstress LAYLA exuded a soulful warmth, rich with organic vitality, as she grappled with the notion of betrayal. Lancashire-based electronic duo Aquilo turn off the orchestral billows and transform “Black Mud” into a joint better fit for hiding behind shades at the club here on their remix.

The duo retain LAYLA’s expressive and unadorned vocals as well as her piano accompaniment, adding wispy, breathy echoes around her while constructing surges of brooding synth pulses and skittering hi-hat for the intervening instrumental sections.

Where LAYLA’s original offered and desired the tenderness and security of a hand to firmly grasp onto for assurance, Aquilo’s remix pitches itself amidst the solitary confines of a club night bender designed to mask and dull the pain, and that moment at night’s end when those eyes, bleary with ache and drink, erupt once your door closes behind you alone.

LAYLA’s Black Mud EP is out now, available digitally from iTunes or limited edition CD here.