One of the brilliant things about Crooked Man’s production is his ability to judge what a track needs and execute it… From floaty and ethereal to twisted late night dirt to joyful euphoria, CM knows what he wants and how to get there.

In the case of his re-interpretation of the much re-interpreted Don’t Leave Me This Way, there was one word in mind, toughness.

The opening 4 bars nail it down from the off. With a bouncing but gritty bassline, which hardly relents for all 11 minutes, by the time you realise what’s going on, you are already fully committed and strapped in for the ride.

Since a version of this originally appeared as a 12” on Bitter End in 2019 (there’s one copy on Discogs and it’s currently going for £72.52!), it has become a staple in all Vicious Charm DJ sets. Every time it’s played, a queue of people appears to ask what it is.

So, once every 6 months, we would ask Parrot if we could release it officially, but he would always change the subject. However, last year, a video of VC boss Damian Harris playing it was posted on the World of Echoes (Francois Kervorkian’s Facebook community). Everyone agreed it was a stunning piece of work, news reached Sheffield, and CM finally relented…