A year on from its release, Fortune gets reimagined by Ireland’s best.

We’ll have two of whatever Ireland’s community of producers have been feasting on during lockdown. The quality of music emanating from the scene of bedroom producers in the absence of clubs has been nothing short of incredible. Whether it’s the thrashing rave sounds of The City Imp compilation, the footwork-influenced madness of Rory Sweeney or Gaptoof’s beat battle series, there’s no shortage of music to keep you ticking over in our purgatory state.

Next up, Julia Louise Knifefist has recruited 13 producers from across Ireland to remix 2020’s Fortune. Featured on the tape are Guhregory, Toke O’Drift, Nrthrd, Brawni, Rhoshi, Rory Sweeney, Cheesmore, Zissou, Aninmwal, Owin, Julia Louise Knifefist, Robin Banks & An Eldritch Abomination.

A year on from the original tape’s release, it has been given a new lease of life with 13 skull-crushing reworks that threaten to turn your casual cans in the park into a mosh pit this summer.

Ahead of its release, we spoke to a Zissou and Julia Louise Knifefist about how it came together.

What inspired the remix project?

Julia Louise Knifefist: Fortune has a really significant place in my heart. The project was born out of being in a very specific situation with lockdown and being in the same house. I don’t know we’ll ever really be in a position to do a collaboration like this again. The EP along with the synthetic drip video I think the project had some influence on some of the people around us. Co had the idea for the project to celebrate the EP’s Anniversary. The project is a sort of re-imagining and new interpretation of the EP. In a way it’s a sort of symbol of a year of growth.

Zissou: It was coming up on the one year anniversary, and we wanted to celebrate that in some way. It seemed logical to try reinvent the tracks and give it a new context.

How did you go about choosing collaborators?

Julia Louise Knifefist: We had only thought of the EP a short time before the actual anniversary so I think we were only able to reasonably ask people close to us to get the remixes done in time. I think this kind of made the remixes more meaningful as some of the producers have a more personal connection to the songs.

Zissou: The majority of them would just be friends or people we looked up to in terms of production, and everyone was really keen on taking on the task.

What was the process of creating it like?

Julia Louise Knifefist: Pretty exciting, it was getting to commission people for their interpretation of the songs. On top of other people’s remixes it was really fun to remix the tunes ourselves. Because the original EP was made in tandem with each other, our solo remixes are both an update of our styles and a more focused version of our sonic palettes.

Zissou: Initially it was a mess to revisit old project files, re-link missing samples, install vsts etc… and gather everything and prepare the stems. But once we got the stems together everyone just took them and ran. Some of the tracks getting sent back to us within a matter of days. It was quite a nostalgic process, it brought us back to when we created it, working with xulfer dica to shoot the cover, conceptualising the release and working through drafts and revisions.

With the remixes in mind, do you see the project through a new Lens?

Julia Louise Knifefist: Absolutely, I think the songs are still fantastic, but with the remixes, the whole project got a bit of a face lift. Being an updated version of itself but all getting stretched across all the producer’s different styles and genres.

Zissou: Totally, all of the artists on the tape took the tracks to new heights, doing stuff we never would have imagined to do on the original project. Its a testiment to the creativity of these producers, being able to reinvent something and have it stand alone is no easy task, but i think everyone rose to that and surpassed our expectations

Click here to support Julia Louise Knifefist on Bandcamp.

The Twitch virtual listening party for the deluxe album takes place on Friday at 21.00 here.

Listen to Fortune Deluxe below:

Elsewhere on District: GOOD TIMES: George Feely, Kelly Doherty, R. Kitt & Sam Greenwood to play WigWam Livestream