Love Like a Man (LTF Edit) / Cool Steppin', by LTF

Love Like a Man (LTF Edit) / Cool Steppin' by LTF, released 22 December 2023 1. Helmuth Brandenburg - Love Like a Man (LTF Edit) 2. Cool Steppin' "A 1971 record by German musician Helmuth Brandenburg called ‘Big-Beat-Band’ stuck in my crates—and in my head—for YEARS. Around 2016, I picked up a cheap copy in addition to a lot of Scandinavian jazz, and only later I found the brilliant cover of ‘Love Like a Man’ by UK band Ten Years After. The original song by Helmuth Brandenburg is killer big band jazz-funk. However, it doesn’t seem to be played often—or ever, even—around B-boys and party rockers… Maybe because of the thing I faced while trying to spin this record in clubs and at cyphers: it never sounds proper on modern sound systems because of the original mixing and mastering—which is amazing for home setups and headphones, by the way. Plus, it’s the last song on the album’s B-side, with the corresponding loss of frequencies. So, guess what: I decided to make my own edit of ‘Love Like a Man’ to the modern-era club sound. There’s hardly a better format imaginable than a 45 record… This tune is way more than just another cover of a popular song. I made sure to create a NEW track out of it. Helmuth Brandenburg surely felt the potential of the original bassline to up the tempo and blow away the listener with a full-blown orchestral sound. Just check the original—it contains all elements of a real funky library gem: killer deep bass, a heavy drum rhythm, fuzz guitars, early synthesizers, and a massive horn section. Well, actually, there are no breaks in the original so I couldn’t resist adding some from my own crates! ‘Cool Steppin’ on the B-side could hardly be named a ‘B-side.’ Here, I have something for the hip-hop heads. Straight from a late-70s Soviet Moscow romantic song to a funky boom bap smasher with a Moog bassline and drums that you can’t be ‘steppin’ cooler’ to than this... Play it loud, please!” —LTF (Light The Fuse)