Yothu Yindi’s ‘Treaty’ is a landmark recording in the canon of Australian popular music. Not only was ‘Treaty’ the first song by a predominately-Aboriginal band to chart in Australia, it was the first song sung in an Aboriginal language to gain international attention.
Most modern listeners will probably remember the song for the seminal Filthy Lucre remix, which took the powerful message of protest at the heart of the song and turned it into an inescapably catchy dance anthem that still honoured the spirit and composition of the original.
The song subsequently spent 22 consecutive weeks in the ARIA top 40 singles chart, became the fifth biggest selling Australian song over the first year of its release. The song earned Yothu Yindi five ARIA Awards, including ‘Song of the Year’.
Razor Recordings has since acquired the exclusive rights to curate and release a remix package to celebrate the 25th anniversary of ‘Treaty’, which includes seven new remixes of the single, including versions by Yolanda Be Cool, Pip Norman, Duncan Gray, Nick Coleman, and more.
The original Filthy Lucre extended mix has also been remastered and will be available across all digital platforms from Friday, 11th November. The reissue has already seen the track re-enter the charts, appearing at Number 33 on the ARIA Club Chart.
“You can feel the urgency and a demanding presence in the tribal elements from this original mix that I didn’t want to tame, just let through,” said mastering legend David Walker, who helped re-master the famous Filthy Lucre version of ‘Treaty’.
“That driving bass line is way more visceral and ‘P Funk meets Mantronix and Filthy Lucre’ than I ever imagined. When I found this to be the case, from listening to the original Razor DAT pre-master mix, I just stayed out of the way as best I could, to allow the Filthy Lucre mix to do its thing, from a 25 year on perspective. The result is a much tougher song.”
