- The "Piano Mix" of "Oldschool Baby," released in 2002, is a modest house classic with a big pop heart. German electronic music has always had a soft spot for this stuff—look no further than Paul Kalkbrenner for evidence of that—but the track had a unique tangle of melancholy and naivety. Fuck Reality's reissue package comes with two remixes, by Gerd Janson and Smallpeople, which fit the spirit of WestBam and Nena's original if not its intensity.
Perhaps knowing that matching the original's euphoria might not be necessary, both versions take a leaner approach. Relying on WestBam's bittersweet string section and a smear of Nena's vocal, the Gerd Janson & Smallpeople "String Dub" is a distant cousin of the original, but they share a familial resemblance. The Smallpeople version feels more closely related: it plays out a bony rendition of WestBam's chords, and has a little more of Nena's singing. Each version could be a notch on a thermostat, from the "String Dub"'s soft, breezy tones, via the punchier Smallpeople version, up to the original's shirt-soaking thump.
TracklistA1 Westbam & Nena - Oldschool Baby (Smallpeople Version)
B1 Westbam & Nena - Oldschool Baby (Piano Mix)
B2 Westbam & Nena - Oldschool Baby (Gerd Janson & Smallpeople String Dub)