Indie-music cult figure David Cloyd’s return to the national spotlight has been a striking one—Red Sky Warning (ECR Music Group), his first record in more than a decade, has enjoyed SPIN Magazine coverage, multiple editorial placements on Apple Music alongside St. Vincent, U2, The Cure, My Morning Jacket, Bright Eyes, Bon Iver and others, and has won a reinvigorated and dedicated audience on four continents.
Now, Cloyd has collaborated with acclaimed producer/remixer and lead singer of The Heroic Enthusiasts James Tabbi for an EP of stunning remixes of Cloyd’s track “Cage Of Water.” Three powerful re-imaginings of the track accompany the original for the four-track EP, each of which draw the listener deeper into the urgent waters this newfound collaboration navigates.
Cloyd’s meteoric 2025 rise and return to the national forefront of indie music is matched by Tabbi’s own. Tabbi’s work in turn has been described by SPIN Magazine as: “Suave, synth-driven Britpop that shimmers with nostalgia and radiates with eternal appeal.” The singer and producer will step forward again this year with the unveiling of his debut solo record, out on Meridian (ECR Music Group) in 2026.
“When I first heard David Cloyd’s ‘Cage Of Water,’” says Tabbi, “I was immediately mesmerized by his use of the Tresillo rhythm. It has this hypnotic, locked-in quality. I knew right away that any remix I did would have to honor and elaborate on that rhythmic foundation. For my ‘Drop of Red Remix,’ I programmed a similar rhythmic style using the ancient Dumbak drum to really underscore that pulse.” Thematically, Tabbi explains that he was just as fascinated by the story the song hints at. “The lyric about being trapped in a ‘cage of water’ and seeing the world ‘through the thick tunnel glass’ gave me this powerful image: a shark in an aquarium, longing for the ‘open sea’. The title for the first remix comes from a key line, ‘One drop of red’—the single catalyst that ‘will open me’ and grant that freedom. It’s a track that’s both rhythmically and lyrically captivating, and I hope this remix captures the tension and the longing of being trapped in such a cage of water.”
For Cloyd, the song’s story is not only metaphorical, it’s a literal one. “My first two years of parenthood brought a lot of love and joy into my days,” says Cloyd. “But it also took a lot of sleep away from my nights. I remember visiting the National Aquarium in Baltimore around that time, staring at these giant sharks through the thick glass as they moved unnaturally through this obviously unnatural habitat. It was exactly how I felt during that sleep-deprived time in my life—disconnected from the world around me, and separated from myself.”
Mastered by the original track’s co-producer and mixer, ECR founder Blake Morgan (Lenny Kravitz, Janita, Lesley Gore), these arresting new versions of one of Red Sky Warning’s tentpole efforts demonstrates the power of artistic collaboration, and the kind ECR Music Group has always been built on: collaborations which cross genre and geography to render fresh, challenging opportunities for artistry.
David Cloyd and James Tabbi’s “Cage of Water” [Remixes] are out January 13th on ECR Music Group.
Connect with James Tabbi