Mr.intl have unearthed a lost gem. ‘Cortina Kidz’ is an utterly overlooked part of the tapestry of late 80’s British acid house history. Recorded in a cold water flat on Stoke Newington Road in 1987 and then released as a B-side in 1988, its eccentric spoken word overlay and weird lead vocal made it very unlike the prevailing dance music sound of the time. This is a unique recording whose time has come.

‘Cortina Kidz’ was produced by a young Tim Brinkhurst ahead of his imminent record deal with Virgin Records with his band Soho, and long before his current role as manager of Mercury Prize winners, Young Fathers. The A-side ‘Jack Me Some Crack’ was a minor dance moment in 1988, but ‘Cortina Kidz’ on the flip remained undiscovered.

That was until mr.Intl, Andy Butler’s record label, made a chance discovery in 2015. It was a track so good that they pledged to resurrect it. Tim was duly tracked down (“you are only the second person in my life to ask me about this record”) and interpretations from Factory Floor and NYC cohorts Juan Maclean & Tim Sweeney are to finally give this track the exposure it deserves.

Tim Brinkhurst explains, “We released a double A side 7” single with two specially written, ‘throw-away’ tracks, a few weeks before the Virgin deal. One of these was ‘Cortina Kidz’, recorded on a 4 track Portastudio and sung with passion by our friend Simon Waller utilising the unique and glorious tones of a Roland MT-32 sound module, it was a little electro-mod/psycho-drama. The single was meant to be released then disappear, it quickly sold out and that was that, for 28 years, until I was contacted from out of the blue by these mad fuckers who wanted to re-release Cortina Kidz!

Hearing it again brought back memories of a London, a Dalston, that was choking with petrol fumes and in the middle of a crack epidemic that made the streets, never the easiest walk, even edgier. The fact that the energy for this remarkable release is now coming from New York seems very appropriate, though. Both cities are rapidly transforming and a triple-post-modern release like this is an echo of the transformation. The old and ancient are re-made/re-modelled, sampled and packaged. It’s no longer ironic to be ironic. There is passion in authenticity but authenticity is on the market. If the original Cortina Kidz was a retro-futurist vision of now, the new versions manage to upset the vision and turn it on its head. This single that was never meant to be.”