The Extremities

Backburner founding fathers Fresh Kils and Uncle Fester have joined together to remix Tonic, a new album recorded specifically for this purpose by prolific jazz artists Chris Mitchell (sax), Doug Riley (organ), Dave Burton (drums) and Jamie Gatti (bass). Kils handles the sampler (plus a few assists on keys) and Fes handles the cuts, creating a smooth fusion of hip-hop and jazz that sometimes ventures into the realms of funk and rock. The hip-hop flavour is furthered with the addition of a few MCs. Both Fiz and Ghettosocks contribute one solo song each, the former on throwback hip-hop ode "Square One” and the latter on the fun, piano-heavy "Liquor to Pandas.” They join forces on the guitar rockin’ "Listen” featuring Halifax legend Jorun on the cuts, and Fiz teams with cool crooner Kaleb Simmonds for the smooth groovin’ "The Way I Feel.” The rest of the album is composed of instrumental tracks. Opener "Warpdrive” is a chill ode to Star Trek, "Driveby” puts nice violin and sax samples to good use, and "3 in the Key” is a funky, full-on collaboration jam session. Let’s hope The New Tonic leads to similar remix projects from these two in the future.