Elvis ReMix

What Now, What Next, Where to? — Remko Kaye Takes Elvis Into 2026, One Deep Cut at a Time.

By Robert Christgau (Essayist) 

A debut remix album puts the King's voice first, digs deep into a half-century-old catalogue, and refuses to treat Elvis Presley as a nostalgia act. 

Half a century after his final recordings, the conversation around Elvis Presley's music tends to follow a familiar script: the Sun Sessions, the RCA years, the '68 Comeback Special, the Vegas decline. The narrative is well-worn, the canon firmly established. What rarely gets discussed is what lies beneath that canon — the film soundtracks recorded under duress, the alternate takes abandoned on the studio floor, the deep cuts buried inside poorly received movies. That is precisely where Dutch musician and producer Remko Kaye has chosen to go to work.

His debut album, *What Now, What Next, Where to?*, is billed as the first Elvis Presley remixes and re-imagined record of its kind, arriving in 2026 on the Taking Kaye Of Business label. It is presented through the platform Elvis Remixed, and from the first preview tracks already made available, it is clear this is not a product designed for casual consumption. This is a project built on obsession, research, and a very specific artistic philosophy.

The Philosophy: Voice as Instrument, Not Artefact

The central principle driving this album sets it apart from the crowded field of posthumous Elvis releases. Rather than pursuing the standard commercial remix — layering contemporary beats over a familiar hit and calling it innovation — Kaye's focus is on the raw power of the performance itself, placing Elvis's vocals front and center and treating his voice as a living instrument rather than a museum piece. 

That distinction matters enormously. The music industry's default approach to legacy artists often results in productions where the original vocal is almost incidental — a famous name draped over someone else's track. Kaye inverts that entirely. The voice is the architecture. Everything else is built around it, in service of it.

The stated ambition is to bridge the gap between classical production traditions and modern artistic vision, with a heartfelt love and respect for Elvis Presley's musical legacy. [elvisremixed](https://www.elvisremixed.com) What that produces in practice is something rarer than the promotional language might suggest: remixes where you hear Elvis more clearly, more powerfully, than you did in the originals.

The Deep Cuts: Where the Real Work Begins

The most revealing artistic choice Kaye makes is his deliberate avoidance of the obvious material. There is no *Suspicious Minds* here, no *Burning Love*, no *Hound Dog*. Instead, he goes looking in the places most fans have never thought to look.

*All I Needed Was The Rain*, for instance, is a 1968 track from the film *Stay Away Joe* — by any measure a minor entry in the Presley catalogue. Kaye took it and built something substantially different: combining it with heavy guitars and a Blues Rock feel, and weaving in elements from *If You Talk in Your Sleep*, *Kentucky Rain*, and *Patch It Up*. The result, according to the project's own documentation, is a hard-hitting blues rock track that takes the original in an entirely new direction. The point is that the vocal was always extraordinary — it simply needed the right frame.

The same logic applies to the treatment of *Could I Fall in Love* and *City by Night* from the 1966 film *Double Trouble* — a soundtrack not widely celebrated in Elvis's filmography. From two of its songs, Kaye constructed a jazzy, funky remix that brings Elvis's voice forward with considerably more power and presence than the original recordings allowed. [elvisremixed](https://www.elvisremixed.com) The film may have been a commercial compromise. The voice, it turns out, was not.

-Surgical Editing and Studio Archaeology

Beyond the genre reframings, what distinguishes this project is the forensic attention to the source material itself. Kaye is not simply remixing finished records. He is working at the level of individual takes, studying what was captured in the studio and making editorial decisions that reshape the listening experience from the ground up.

On the *Promised Land* remix, Kaye worked specifically from Take 5 of the original recording — a version in which Elvis, towards the end of the track, begins to lose focus and goof around. That section was identified and spliced out. In its place, Kaye brought in the Sweet Inspirations' choir work from a 1970 live rendition of *Patch It Up*, producing a track that carries what the project describes as a genuine live energy. It is the kind of decision that requires both deep familiarity with the material and the confidence to intervene in it.

On the Rock-It Remix of *There Ain't Nothing Like A Song* — from the 1968 film *Speedway* — Kaye made an equally bold call regarding Nancy Sinatra, who appeared on the original recording alongside Elvis. Rather than retaining her contribution in its original form, Kaye replaced it with vocal elements drawn from her hit single *How Does That Grab You Darling/Baby*, effectively reimagining her role in the track entirely. The result is a version of the song that could not have existed in 1968, but feels entirely coherent as a 2026 production.

Situating Remko Kaye in a Wider Tradition

Remixing Elvis Presley is not new. The estate has authorised various remix projects over the decades, with varying degrees of artistic seriousness. What Kaye appears to be doing sits in a more rarefied space. The Elvis Remixed platform draws a direct comparison between Kaye and respected remixer Jamieson Shaw, positioning Kaye among those producers who shape music in a way that makes Elvis's voice and power stronger, rather than subordinating it to new production. 

That comparison carries weight. Shaw's work on Elvis material has been noted within collector and enthusiast communities for its restraint and its fidelity to the emotional core of the original performances. If Kaye is operating in that tradition, the album has genuine credibility behind it.-

What to Expect

Based on the previews available, *What Now, What Next, Where to?* is shaping up as an album for serious listeners — people who already know the Elvis catalogue well enough to appreciate what is being changed, and why. It is not designed to introduce Elvis to a new generation through contemporary production trends. It is designed to make those who already love the music hear it differently.

As the project frames it: this is a world where the voice of a legend is treated not as a relic of the past, but as a vibrant force for today — a true artistic reinterpretation, bold, fresh, and respectful, of a sound that changed the world.Id you like Jamieson Shaw you will love Remko Kaye. 

The album is expected later in 2026. Preview tracks and downloads are available now at **www.elvisremixed.com**.