Following a roaring tour of the UK and Europe to celebrate the release of his third studio album Fase Luna earlier this year, LA Priest, aka Sam Eastgate, releases a remix of funked-up love song It’s You by legendary French Touch international DJ and producer, Alan Braxe.
Deliciously disco infused with a warm, pulsating bassline, Braxe’s remix of It’s You elevates the original into a new league of its own, perfectly complementing Eastgate’s vocals and promising an instant dance-floor rush.
On the release, Eastgate comments: “Not since my first track Engine in 2007 has an LA Priest release felt this earth-shakingly funked up and sonically unstoppable.”
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“Working on LA Priest’s It’s You was an absolute pleasure,” Braxe also comments. “It’s a truly moving and beautiful song. Remixing it was intimidating at first but after an immersion into the track playing with both Sam's vocals and the bass guitar, the disco side of it popped up in my mind. I hope you'll like it."
The original version of It’s You was an instant LA Priest classic. Lyrically based on the story of “a guy who falls in love with a sea mermaid or water spirit and has to choose between life on the land or the ocean”, it was released alongside an unforgettable video directed by Eoin Glaister (Glass Animals, Joji) and starring Juliet Cowan (The Power, PhoneShop) about a woman who falls helplessly in love with a sewage fatberg.
Variously known as Sam Dust, LA Priest and L.A. Priest, Eastgate has built a reputation as a subversive, unpredictable musician, consistently innovating over the course of his work with his now defunct breakout band Late Of The Pier, his cherished Soft Hair collaboration with Connan Mockasin as well as his solo work under LA Priest.
His third studio album Fase Luna was recorded for the most part in Mexico and the rainforests of Costa Rica. From the gently warped guitars on super-chilled opener On, through to the slow and tender closing track No More, each song on Fase Lunaweaves and undulates into the next, creating an immersive whole. Sam was struck by each area’s mythical history and ancient connections to the ocean, drawing heavily on both to pack Fase Luna with stories of spirits and imaginations of life on the ocean bed.
Without a synthesiser in sight, it is the purest LA Priest record yet. And with drums laid down by local musician Carlos Gabriel Favela Manzano in Mexico as Sam hummed the melodies, the closest the record gets to modern technology of any kind is the translation tool he used to write the Spanish lyrics of far out “fairy story”, Sail On. Raw and unfiltered, Fase Luna offers a one-way ticket to another world.
“I want to give people a feeling that they’re free when they listen to it, it’s not bringing you back to reality, it’s escapism," he said.
Following his successful UK + European solo tour, LA Priest is currently on a European tour supporting Jungle, aka electronic producers Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland.
Fase Luna is available to buy now on exclusive white vinyl + Fase Luna artwork poster bundles (Dom Mart only), white vinyl, standard black vinyl, CD and digitally. Buy: Dom Mart | Digital.
