The resulting track - a 9.45 version of Ten Percent by Double Exposure - was a revelation. It was so good that Salsoul released it as the first commercial 12” single (considered a gimmick at the time). Today, the track doesn't hold up quite as well as its reputation or other Walter Gibbons mixes - but to compare the 7” mix with the Walter Gibbons version is to see how Walter gave the track a trance-like power. He added the spirit of James Brown, of something urgent and tribal. He repeated what needed repeating for the dancers, knowing that the dance was the most important thing. He teased the beat out to its correct length. Yet, because the original track was so full of Philly Soul (Salsoul & Philadelphia International Records often used the same musicians), Ten Percent was still light and fun. Yes, fun. Now there's a word that makes the rock scribes sneer. It was a fun that Walter knew could bring both spiritual and ecstatic revelations - a fun to work at and make perfect.
And after that, Walter Gibbons just got better & better.
Walter mixed Catch me on the rebound by Loleatta Holloway thrice - Once as a gospel induced ecstatic 10 minute mover, twice as an instrumental which begins with the bass and then adds, adds and adds (surely a work for other DJs of the time) and thrice as part of his experimental album "Disco madness". And the gaps between the mixes only serve to illustrate Gibbon's artistic growth, which then, as now, was sneered at as impossible for a mere DJ. What began as a Phil Spector pop song crossed with a James Brown beat with a dash of Philly soul to dance dance dance, gradually became an analysis of sound and movement. By the final mix, Walter's penchant was to do away with the bass and let the drums carry effected vocalisms or echoed snatches of instrumentation, a uniquely visual dub-influenced take on dance/disco music that still hasn't attained the popularity of, say, Larry Levan.
Walter created famous mixes of The Salsoul Orchestra's Nice & Naasty & Loleatta Holloway's Hit & Run - both of which showed (and continue to show) the potential and craft of mixing a record, and both of which equally show a debt to that other mix pioneer, the wonderfully soulful Tom Moulton. But the true genius of Walter Gibbons lies in his bizarre work - Moon Maiden by Luv You Madly Orchestra, It's Good For The Soul by The Salsoul Orchestra, (Dance with me) Let's believe by Cellophane. All records that stand up to scrutiny under any microscope, all records that put many other "classic" records to shame, and all records that wouldn't be a quarter of what they are without Gibbon's touch. (And all of which are available on the superlative 3CD set Mixed With Love - The Walter Gibbons Salsoul Anthology, a CD that should be in AT LEAST the top 20 of ANY "best records of all time" list, and a CD which is currently and criminally out of print. Seek out a copy quickly before the price goes astronomical.)
A temperamental, insecure yet committed man - Walter's career ebbed & flowed over the "80s, including a few more classics (especially the proto-electro-techno monster Set if off by Strafe - the 12+ minute "instrumental' mix is a part- Kraftwerk, part-Prince, part-Arthur Baker monster.) Walter died in the early 1990s under-recognised, having at one time alienated even his own alienated crowd with his born-again religious fervour, his stubbornness and his shyness. But to call Walter Gibbons a genius is almost to under-appreciate the very word itself.
