Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo, better known as EDM favourite The Bloody Beetroots, has a new studio album this September in Hide, but the Italian dance punk luminary isn’t shying away from the spotlight in the way that his record title might suggest.
Paving the way for the sequel to 2009 debut album Romborama is lead single ‘Out Of Sight’ which features a musical collaboration that’s pretty difficult to fly under the radar, and while the Bloody Beetroots have conducted some high profile remixes before – such as Britney Spears, Rob Zombie, and The Killers – his latest is also his biggest. None other than Sir Paul McCartney.
The video for The Bloody Beetroots new single, released today, also features McCartney, albeit as a detached head on a video screen amongst Rifo’s various electronic paraphernalia, refusing to lip-sync to his own vocal performance as the masked master of ceremonies conducts a chorus of spooky-looking children and twiddles his knobs and various instruments in a disused church.
The legendary surviving Beatle couldn’t have imagined himself taking centre-stage in a dubstep-tinged orchestral banger when he was crooning the lyrics to ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’, but the 71-year-old McCartney’s ‘Bloody Beatlresroots’ collaboration also comes via Youth, the moniker for producer Martin Glover, who also features on the track.
In fact, it was McCartney and Youth’s experimental electronic music side-project The Fireman, and their third and latest album Electric Arguments, that was the catalyst for The Bloody Beetroots guest spot. The Beatle couldn’t have imagined himself taking centre-stage in a dubstep-tinged orchestral banger when he was crooning the lyrics to ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’
“This year, I’ve been spending quite a lot of time in the studio producing new stuff with Youth of Killing Joke,” Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo reveals to Radio.com, which includes his remix of Killing Joke (a rare occurrence). “He asked me if I was looking for some new features for my upcoming album. I said yeah, I have two names: one is Penny Rimbaud [of punk band Crass], and the other one is Paul McCartney. You never know if it will happen or not. But at least you ask and maybe they’ll say yes,” adds Rifo.
“So Youth gave me the stems of a Fireman song called ‘Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight’ and he said to me, ‘Bob, try to remix this track and let’s see if Paul likes it,’” Rifo explains, referring to the opening track of Electric Arguments.
“So if you know me, you know that if I do a remix, it will probably end up being something totally original, basically a new song,” he continues. “That’s exactly what I did. I recomposed all the harmony and redesigned Paul’s melody. Then I went to the RAK Studios in London to replay all the instruments.”
After sending the remix to the Beatle himself, Rifo got the thumbs up, prompting one more request; “if it was possible that [McCartney] re-record the vocals,” he says, “because it’s going to sound even better.”
The Bloody Beetroots were last in the country playing the Boiler Room for this year’s Big Day Out, while Paul McCartney has abstained from Australian shores for 20 years, last touring Down Under for The New World Tour in 1993. The Beatle was scheduled to tour Australia in 2002, but plans were scuppered following the Bali Bombings and McCartney hasn’t been back since.
The Bloody Beetroots’ Hide is out September 20th in Australia via Hussle Recordings/Ministry of Sound.
