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Home News New Music

Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy reworked by ABSOLUTE. for 40th anniversary

Connor Gotto by Connor Gotto
June 4, 2024
in New Music, News
Bronski Beat Smalltown Boy Handout Press Courtesy-4

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ABSOLUTE. has remixed Bronski Beat’s classic synth-pop smash Smalltown Boy for its 40th anniversary.

Originally released on May 25, 1984, Smalltown Boy launched the group into the charts with an LGBTQ+ narrative centred on themes of rejection, pain and escape, delivered by Jimmy Somerville’s soaring falsetto vocals.

To mark the track’s milestone, ABSOLUTE. – aka London-based BJ and producer Ant McGinley – has added a trance-edge to the tune, saying: “When I got asked to rework Smalltown Boy I was literally just screaming.

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“And when I started work on it, it was such an emotional experience. I was welling up while I was making it, which is so rare to happen for me, this made me know just how much of a special track this was.”

“ABSOLUTE. has kept a strong essence of the period and the song. The Bass!” adds Somerville. “I was transported back to our first times writing (banging on a Pro One and a Moog) and me realising I never had to walk around vocally imitating a sequence ever again!”

It comes ahead of the release of a limited run of physical formats of the single, which drop on July 26.

Listen to Smalltown Boy (ABSOLUTE. Rework) below.

Tags: 1980sABSOLUTE.Bronski Beat
Connor Gotto

Connor Gotto

Founder and editor of RETROPOP. Self-proclaimed pop aficionado. Usually seen with a wine in hand.

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