goldmine - mic love (raconteur box remix)

i think i heard the original "mic love" back in the 90's since it was sort a small hit but i didn't recall it until i heard it on a swedish hiphop compilation that most younger heads that grew up in the 90's went and bought. goldmine was a hiphopgroup with a whole team of guys and one girl called deetah.

she was the one that managed to get a small career afterwards and i often heard that she was featured on a 2pac song. which is correct but still not, stonebridge gave her the opportunity to add a verse for his remix of pac and biggie's posthumous single "runnin'".

anyhow, that had nothing to do with this one but i bought the "mic love" 12 inch about ten years ago in a big sale and it started my fascination with the tune. mostly because of the bobby caldwell sample but it was quite nice and catchy.

the remixes for it was something i didn't care about until i saw the cd-single in a charityshop and bought it because of the fuck of it. somehow i don't get the point of buying the same song on different format but i was buying some other stuff and it was cheap.

raconteur who did two remixes and both removed the bobby caldwell sample that stonebridge & nick nice based their original and club mix around. they both lean on the r&b side but while the 'combo version' is a bit soulful, the 'box version' revolves around a stripped down beat and a talk-box.

i really like the bassline, the subtle melodic elements and of course the robot-soul. raconteur chopped up deetah's hook to only keep the first parts and had them then repeated and resang on the talkbox. it's a really good change and i like it especially since the original hook is bad. but with a little robotics it's passable.

emma bunton - crickets sing for anamaria (atfc's samba magic vocal)

this one was discovered definitely through discogs because i really don't know what emma bunton did musically after the spice girls, apart from a jump in on the tin tin out cover of edie brickell/the new bohemian's "what i am". which was decent, captures sort of the tone of the original but not as good but the gang starr remix was a few notches better.

little sidetrack now but that gang starr remix was unreal in a few respects, mostly that premier would touch something inferior like that but also that guru mentions emma bunton's name in the adlibs for the intro. this same feeling came when i heard bunton's version of this astrud gilberto/marcos valle classic.

mostly because bunton was trying to sound like astrud gilberto and it's just bizarre really, but to be honest it wasn't for bunton i fell in love with this one. atfc captures the vibrant madness of a samba carnival and with the chords and rhythms from the original song he transforms it into a really funky tune.

the version i heard first was atfc's dub on fatboy slim's brazilian mixcd where it was excellent and i tried endlessly to get hold of that but could only find the vocal version which works. for the vocal mix atfc uses a lot from the vocal but keeps the chorus out and only uses the first parts from the first line but treated with effect and filter to segue into the bombast.

alexia - number one

on sunday a mate of mine (ian) played mixed some tunes together on a shoutcastradio session, so did i after him but this has nothing to do with it. ian was playing an assortment of drum & bass tunes and halfway in he played a blu mar ten's "nobody here".

i'd never heard that before but once the vocal hit i kept thinking "i know those lyrics" and it hit me directly, they had borrowed the lyrics and vocal melody from this song. alexia's "number one" from '96, it's one of my favourites of all time and i'm saying that as someone who actually has:
a) several favourite eurodance favourites that isn't the most popular tunes out there (i.e. "what is love?" or "mr. vain" or "rhythm is a dancer", etc etc etc)
b) likes and spun a hefty dose of eurodance over the years.

now granted i can't for 100% sure say that this song is original since eurodance was built on borrowing elements. i looked around and i can't find where robyx (who produced this track) would have taken the hook from but do correct me if i'm wrong. anyhow, the lyric lines were changed a little bit sure enough it's the almost the same.

it was a fun revelation and it's always fascinating when someone or some people (in this case) takes something from a genre less credible and work it into something that is quite serious. since normally it's the other way around but this concept is employed a lot in recent years and especially when they try to make it darker or moodier than the carefree original.

but let's get back to the original since i have no relation to blu mar ten's track besides hearing it that it on sunday and then hearing it on junodownload later again. this track just clicked with me instantly and showed me that alexia had more hits than "uh la la la" because back in the 90's i hadn't heard anything besides that.

the track itself isn't any different from other eurodance track, it employs the usual driving beats and rolling basslines and catchy melodies. i'm not going to say that it was a whole new breed of tracks because it's a robyx production as per usual but he knew how to make good tunes, especially for corona and ice mc.

that piano melody and alexia's deliverance is just great and i hold this one dear to my heart as cheesy as that sounds. and i bet it's a big contradiction for me to like this considering i was bigging up something like jan jelinek, goran kafjes and emmanuel top just a while ago but that's me. i like almost everything and i'm not afraid to tell that.

buy here (djtunes)

also well recommended is noel sanger's remixes for the us market, they are trancy and well done and can work in a trance set even in modern standards. especially the dub

buy here (djtunes)

ralphie b. - massive (d ramirez remix)

this isn't by far my favourite version of this track (that would be the mirco de govia remix) and i think it wasn't well received by most of us trancecrackers at the time. it did get some play by the people who were into the tribal prog thing but even then the version more looked at was the filterheadz remix.

i remember not getting a really big impression from the tune since it was like any other tribal technohouse type joint. the repeated "massive" vocal sample which wasn't in the original gave me a link to another remix that didn't use any parts of the original, the mauro picotto version of dj tiësto's "lethal industry". where picotto handed in a techno track with an occacional vocoded vocal sample saying, well you guess it.

d.ramirez approach to this track was to load in a heavy set of drums and let them do the working and they deliver. there is some other sounds used like some synth sounds but they are subtle and so are the uses from the original.

the overall misconception is that d.ramirez didn't use anything of the original since neither it's distinct bassline, melody or it's drumgroove are played as per usual. the bassline isn't present but elements from the melody appears and they are chopped up in a clever way.

it's these kind of thumpers that is fun to throw into techier sets for those choice subdued melodic stabs but also trancier sets where a heavy tribal groove does the job for buildups.

the cranberries - zombie (camel's hump mix)

i was given a heads up on this one through acid ted's blog when he discovered it on one of cranberries greatest hits boxes/compos. he wasn't up on it since it featured dolores singing but i found it intriguing since it focused on the bassline. this is truly one of those orb remixes that's been under rug swept and not featured elsewhere, probably because it wasn't properly released until it appeared on the cranberries 2002 box set spanning their entire career (until then).

the many times i've listened to "zombie" after 1994 i've always been captivated by that low bassline and how it's in a almost dub reggae style. i've mentioned before that a lot of times i get more intrigued by the rhythm section of a song than the guitars or vocals and especially in rock music.

i tend to like the song more if it has a great bassline rather than a lengthy guitarwanking session. songs like the beatles' "taxman", the jams' "a town called malice", the breeders' "cannonball" and nirvana's "in bloom". "zombie" is often remembered for that hook and that heavy guitar but for me it's the bassline and the chord progression.

the reason i'm talking about "zombie" and this version was because of i had the displeasure of hearing mohombi's recent song "in your head" where he very tounge in cheek like replaces "zombie" with his artist name. the original then came to mind and of course that this remix that i heard a while back.

it starts out with a funny quote "you're about to discover how to create your own music, that's right. you no longer need to listen to the dumb music they play on the radio, now you can create your own dumb music. just look what you can do with this rhythm machine" and then it goes into what can only can be described as orbular.

heavy soundscapes, some random sounds, a deep and booming bass and all the trimmings you expect from dr alex patterson in his dubbiest labcoat. o'riordan's vocal is featured in the first half and a little bit at the end and while they sound random in this shape and form, they aren't really bothersome. i quite liked what the the orb did with this track and it's well interesting.

buy here (7digital)

new order - true faith (morning sun extended remix)

i was on a huge italo kick a few years ago and i was digging into stuff that i knew my older sisters liked and things i heard when i was a little kid. i had remembered this song from mtv actually where the video was fascinating but i always mixed it up with fine young cannibal's "she drives me crazy".

the original song is amazing and is one my favourite new order songs but i guess it's kind of predictable as well since "true faith" was a big hit and i think most people have heard it about a million times. this version that was remixed by shep pettibone and what he did was he usually did at the time, he kept the integral part of the song and added a little more melody, groove and sorted it for the dj.

pettibone's version is quite italo and it's a whole load of energy, not saying that the original was not but it was focused a little more on bernard. pettibone sets up the original song a little more and much like 80's style remixing it lets the first three quarters of the song run almost in ordinary fashion. except it does included more production from pettibone.

the usual routine for that kind of remixing is right after the second chorus is to go into an extended instrumental bridge where it gets musical but simmers down to a groove. in a very release and tension style but the groove section was employed as mixouts, especially if it was a longer bridge.

pettibone actually employs this routine but keeps the bridge like the original where it was a guitar solo but loops one section of it. the mixout is actually employed at the end of the record and i think it's because the record was done in the late 80's and at that time dj's & producers started to employ the new form of track structure.

the records made by dj's had a groove in the beginning that builds up to the song and then, when the song is over it strips down to the groove again. this form would later be perverted as dj's making the music weren't that musical and kept it rawer and rawer because they didn't know how to play instruments.

the reason i love this version is that it keeps true to the original and uses all it's good parts and highlights it more. the keyword is more, more drama, more melody, more groove. it's a version i'll support for a long time.

buy here (7digital)

lovebirds - behind you

i heard about "modern stalking" ep when it was first released four years ago and it was an really good solid four tracker where every track was on point. the tracks i locked into first was "can't get along" (with it's vance & suzzanne sample) and the title track "modern stalking" with it's rising moog sounds & boogie groove.

but i was compiling a mix for my friend bassel and i was much intending to work atleast one track from the ep and this one came into play. it had a really strong groove and i liked the way it teased in the george benson samples in on the build.

it was almost kenny dixon jr-esque and it worked really well when i played it after kdj's remix of "people make the world go round". of course it's not completely kdj since he doesn't filter and effect like the lovebirds/knee deep brothers do.

buy here (junodownload)

stina nordenstam - people are strange (u.n.k.l.e. remix)

i remember hearing about this one about eight years ago and it was the combination of u.n.k.l.e. and stina nordenstam that intrigued me. i later found out that the original song was a cover of the doors and i liked their original but this remix rated higher in my book.

i heard the remix and liked it but didn't do anything substantial with it until i talked about it with my good friend jan henrik. he was one of those that caught fast onto dubstep and i remember asking him if he had a way of working the tune and he said: "pitch it up and you get something that you can play with dubstep".

i chose to talk about this one coming of the previous post with the bola remix of lamb since it is another tune that was dubstep before anyone (including me) knew that dubstep was. but it's hard of talking about things like matter without coming off as a pompous jackass but it's always fun to find progenitors.

listen here (youtube)

lamb - softly (bola remix)

i bought the softly single at a secondhand shop four-five years ago or and i hadn't heard "softly" before but i knew of lamb and the fact that you could always find quality remixes on their singles. this one had two versions of "softly" by bola and red snapper and a version of "alien" by photek.

i listened to them all when i took it home but one version caught on fast and it was quite ahead of it's time. burial's sound was hot at the time and i found something that was in that sonical neighbourhood but made ten yours prior. it has the distinct shuffled drumrhythms along with heavy atmosphere sitting on top of heavy subbass.

only thing that is the track is at 6/8 since the original was made in that and i found it harder to work along with other tracks but i did anyways and when i didn't do that i listened to it a little to much. it's just infectious and you do get the same feeling as when you heard "archangel" or "broken home" the first time.

buy here (7digital)

veronica maggio - jag kommer (mash up international remix feat. kakan)

the original track was one of the biggest tracks of the summer here in sweden and it's partly because of it's catchy lyrics. probably because of the not so discrete innuendo with the hook as well. it might have also be because the riff sounds like the strokes' "reptilia".

anyhow, i liked the tune but was fed up with it until this version appeared. mash up international's remix is a party tune with their distinct flavours. or their and their, it's kind of radioclit actually. but the biggest change apart from the new electronic groove is the verse added from club personality and blogger karin kakan hermansson.

also the fact that they edited the vocal and the lyrics to not being tongue in cheek about it's innuendo and played it up even more. kakan's verse helps even more and what she does is to spin the perspective from veronica's original where she talks about a guy into a girl on girl perspective.

this is not a stunt like "i kissed a girl" but kakan's upfront personality and the fact that she is lesbian, not bi-curious makes it more believable when she says lines such as "hon är ganska ung och hon ligger naken / reser mig up, hon kollar r&b baken / jag snodde dig från din dj-kille / han kunde inte ge dig det du ville / du vill komma i min mun, skriker för högt i ditt gamla flickrum"

(translation: she is pretty young and she's lying naked / i get up and she checks out my r&b-booty* / i stole you from your dj boyfriend / he couldn't give you what you wanted / you want to come in my mouth / screaming as loud as you can in your old girls room").

i'd like to point out that i don't care if the roleplay was reversed and it could be a guy-on-guy thing, if the track is banging then the track is banging. there is no such thing as "too gay" in music.

listen here (soundcloud)

*kakan hermansson bills herself rnb hermansson as a dj and calls her bootylicious behind as the r&b-booty.

tosca - honey (funky lowlives dub)

i bought the 'honey' remix lp along with the 'fuck dub' remix lp awhile back and i knew that there was a huge load of quality in them. both listening-wise and for djing purposes since there is a wide range of musical styles on those, and on the g-stone sphere in general.

since 'honey' sits in 100-110 bpm range the musical styles range from dubby to housey, some use a lot from the original and some use just the vocal sample/the percussion/the bassline. the rerub by funky lowlives take a lot from the original but adds more groove and beefs it up.

heavy emphasis on atmosphere and especially the drums which attracted me to it, it's also why i like faze action's version. there is a lot of vibrant percussive action set to a nice groove backed up a good bassline. this is a track that i'd pitch up a bit and work it with similar funky broken beat tunes or whatnot. lovely

buy here (junodownload)

asian dub foundation - dub mentality

i've mentioned that i love the word 'dub' and i think this was the reason i decided to listen to this one that time over ten years ago. but i heard of asian dub foundation through a book i read once and in it was a small description of bhangra. i liked that word as well but not as much as dub.

i didn't listen to any of the artists or track mentioned in that book but some names was in my head forever. i listened to this because of it's title but the lyrics made sense from the get-go. they talk about dub, jungle and the fusion of ideas and how you shouldn't limit yourself to one sound.

to be really honest the track and also to a certain extent the band sounds like rage against the machine in the hands of a london jungle producer. that thing, while it sounds corny and really bad just works on this track. it has a great bassline and a violin part that is really lovely and i like the hook. it's also somewhat corny but makes sense: "dub is the preacher / jungle is the teacher".

when i first heard the track it was the version on the 'rafi's revenge' version which is a remix with a lot more dub influence and additional production. the original version 'r.a.f.i.' is much more simpler and removes a lot of the reverb and echo effects and whatnot. i enjoy that one but i'm used to the dub haze of the original and it sounds weird in these ears.

buy here (7digital)

natacha atlas - moustahil

i came in contact with natacha atlas' music like most, through compilations and it was her voice that just did it for me. the production by the transglobal underground family was not completely lost on me but she had an amazing voice. it's a voice that sounds like if nancy ajram didn't sound so girly.

note that this is when she sings in arabic, which she does mostly but she does sing in english and it just sounds wrong. the big paradox is that atlas' isn't someone straight out egypt but someone with arabic parents and apparently someone who speaks her english with a strong london accent.

"moustahil" isn't one of those track but the second track on her second album 'halim' (named in honour of abdel halim hafez). in her concert routine this track is usually used with atlas doing her finest bellydancing in mind. the groove is quite perfect for that and it's a good interpretation of a modern arabic dance song without the over-use of western influences.

structurally it's quite in line with the traditional arabic songs & aesthetics that atlas' was trying to do. strong groove, vibrant drums, heavy use of keys and by keys i mean those very resonant synth patches prominent in music from the region.

he most apparent is the vocal arrangement which always have the main singer singing a verse or a hook and it's always repeated directly by backup-singers. a lot of times the main singer will be prominent on on the last parts of the repeat to add a vocal fill.

the structure also is have the symbiotic nature between vocal and instrumental part, especially in upbeat songs or songs obviously meant for dancing. since this music was built from a live setting and later transferred onto recording, singers know that they sometimes will take a backseat role for the groove.

as i mentioned since this is a very danceable song, in concert, atlas' has the band jam on sections and move her hips to everyone's delight. all the versions i've heard from concerts has been better than the album version but i still rate it high. it builds so much in it's first part and you have that two note bass groove just getting more intense along the way.

right after the instrumental middle eight, there is a drum fill and an "oh vocal stab" and then the track kicks in a slightly higher gear. the bass is very resonant and the tempo keeps getting faster and the keys and flute seem to fight over who can outdo each other. this chaotic coda gets more frantic and right at the peak, song ends.

she does the same structure live but while the album version goes up a few bpms it goes into double time in the span of thirty seconds or so. awesome really.

buy here (junodownload)

the future sound of london - glass

i (re)discovered this one when i popped on the dead cities album some while ago and with all the goodness on that album one track stood out and it got stuck in my head instantly. that says a lot with an album filled with quality. because seriously, there is not single bad note on the album.

that repeated note sequence in "glass" is a tease really and you think it's going to be that all the way through since it's building and building. then that weird wonderful bent sound that comes straight out leftfield and then it dies down. and introduces this rhythm that will make you knod your head or move your feet as it's quite dancable.

the beat and it's time signature always puzzles me as it sounds both like a 4/4 and a 6/8. there is enough swing to throw me off and this is what i love about the track as well. the progression is quite natural but i do want a bit more rhythm.

buy here (junodownload)

motorbass - bad vibes (d.mix)

i found the reissue of pansoul a while back and was quite chuffed to find that. i'm not going to say that i knew much about motorbass but i had heard a few tracks and liked their type of house. philippe zdar and etienne de crécy had this approach to making tracks that was almost kdj-esque.

their style of sampling wasn't as rough as their contemporaries and it had that nice druggy vibe to it. i particularity like their remix of björk's "isobel" where they built the whole thing around a huge chunk of the supreme's "my world is empty without you", compelete with ross' vocals and all. but they twist it around and overlap it with their own sounds and it sounds really nice.

this one was one of the tracks that i couldn't stop listening to when i first went through the album and it was just that nice atmosphere and groove that got me hooked. it uses a billie holiday vocal sample but i only figured that out after reading a discogs comment and hearing the original version on soundcloud.

the original is much more deep but this version adds a bit more bounce and rhythm. i know this version contradicts what i said about their sampling not being as rough but i don't care. both original and album remix are good tunes. the rhode loop that carries the track out along with the bass are quite infectious. the drums pack quite a punch and those rides and percussion grooves is saying all the good things to me.

tune is quite simply, french funk. as it should be. support and bang it out, it'll work even today.

buy here (7digital)

delerium - truly (infusion remix)

this one i heard slightly after it was released, i remember that the signum remix was the one given out first to some of the big jocks at the time. signum had a bit of a second wind at the time and armin van buuren was supporting their works.

slightly after came infusion's remix to most peoples attention and i bought the cd-single right when it came out. it was a groovy piece of thing. it uses cut up vocals and a really buzzy bass groove. much like their remix of transformer 2's "just can get enough" for positiva's 10 years release. less trancy influences on this and it's quite focused on the groove and it's a heavy one.

the vocal is introduced rather nicely and i quite like nerina pallot's effort and lyrics on it but there is a part of me that'd like a dub. or at least a part with less vocals and i have tried my hand at editing the tune but it's infuriating since i get it to flow smoothly. the only other edit i've see was by one of the minilogue/son kite guys (i think it was mullaert) and i didn't think his edit worked.

anyhow, the other reason why i'd want to edit it is that the best part of the song, the coda that has the bass & synths going frantic in a good way. it's too short really. i have done some live mixing trickery a few times when i've doubled up the track and looped it up. it's a really banging track and it's a track i'll be playing for a long time.

buy here (7digital)

theatre of tragedy - lorelei (icon of coil remix)

a mate of mine introduced me to the band over ten years ago, it was with the "aegis" album. i can't say that i listen to them often nowadays but i like that album. probably because the songs are quite easy to get into, and especially "lorelei".

i think i found out that there was a remix of this song when i googled the lyrics for "lorelei". i didn't look for it instantly but there was something intriguing. especially when i heard other icon of coil tracks and remixes. the end result is quite epic.

ishkur mentions that in his guide to electronic dance music that futurepop and epic trance are like lost cousins and with this track, it's true. it's a piece of stonking trance with great melodics and vocals by people that can hold a note. i think i gave the heads up on this tune once as, "it's good vocal trance".

the combination of the synth buzz and the guitar riffs is great especially in the hooks. another really nice thing is the piano that is tucked away in the back and is later given solo in the last two minutes. great tune.

buy here (7digital)

jan jelinek - moire

this one came around at a time i was looking for things out of my comfort zone, and then in the big cloud of genre music either known as "downtempo" (or "electronica"). that is the name(s) most people, pidgeonholers and non-pidgeonholers use for all electronic music that is not danceable in a clubby manner.

i have no idea what to define it as it is part glitch, part dub, part "idm" and part michael jackson. i don't really care what it is, so for all intents and purposes it's techno. except it's not.

musically it is a haze of very fragile sounds, a lot of enclosed dub echoes and crackles. this piece comes in three shapes and forms and what separates them as they have similar themes is the additional sound. they are called "strings", "guitar & horns" and "piano & organ" but fact is the additional sound isn't as defined as it says on the tin.

they are part of the haze and by far the composition that is my favourite has to be "piano & organ" as sample evokes all the right shades of that nice cheery gloom (if that even makes sense). i think it's more predictable for me to say the "strings" as i used it in one of my mixes but while i think that version is awesome, it just made sense for that portion.

however, all of them are great.

piano & organ: buy here (junodownload)
strings: buy here (junodownload)
guitar & horns: buy here (junodownload)

armand van helden - alienz

this was one of the tracks on armand's "2 future 4 u" album that i didn't like or understand until a few years later. i think it was because it was too noisy and too dark but once i got it, it was a revelation. to understand the track you'd have to like uk garage but maybe jungle as armand's experiment of taking jungle sounds & production aesthetics became uk garage.

it was in some interview that van helden said that noone cared for his small foray into jungle, so he decided to try to implement what he liked into his brand of house. and "alienz" is for all intents and purposes a techstep track at 130bpm. just punchy drums, dark pads and a massive reese.

that reese gave me the same shivering feeling as the first time i heard trace's mutant jazz remix. it's really rugged and the hard & aggressive nature gives any mix a right kick up to all the right places. i used it as the tail end peak for a mix i did a years ago and it was for all those reasons.

the mix starts off very disco flirting and soft and goes into deep and techy territories but goes back to some bright summery stuff and to contrast that section i unleashed this. lovely.

buy here (junodownload)

pete heller - nu acid (robert babicz remix)

this one was discovered through juno and the reason i checked it out was for it's stupid name but i saw that robert babicz had done a remix. this combination intrigued me since it's quite well known that robert babicz aka rob acid put his tb303 in storage, or at least just put away, since '06 or so.

he'd do an a track or two with some serious acid tweaking but his output mostly lacked that resonant acid wiggle. now the original is the second track acid track that heller has done for bedrock and the first one was decent at best. this is better but it rides on a gimmick.

fact is that the original is heller's take on phuture's "acid trax", it kicks along the same and the riff is near identical. unlike "acid trax" that is that groove for twelve minutes, this goes into a kevin saunderson flirt in the middle and adds a few more ideas in. however for heller's "raw mix", the modus operandi is like the track it's covering.

babicz version is a fuller version of heller's track and it works the riff initially more like a bassline. it then breaks out the higher frequencies in sections but you understand by the first three minutes that babicz isn't going to join heller and remake "acid trax" in that fashion. probably because babicz already done his grand opus named "acid!" as his moniker origin back in 1995.

instead babicz works the groove and i fail to see how anyone can listen to this and not move their butt. every idea that heller used in his original is implemented better in babicz version. the kevin saunderson flirting (that's a nicer term for using the inner city "big fun" stab soun) is worked much more naturally.

the slight moody melodics is retranslated into the small breakdown where it's a nice contrast to the groove pounding away in the back. babicz's version is named "robert babicz smiling mix", and i'm smiling as well with this wonderful piece of house.

buy here (junodownload)

a hundred birds - black water

this one i discovered a little while after hearing the a hundred birds remix of either âme's "rej" or lifelike & kris menace's "discopolis" and finding out that they did their remixes as a band/group/collective. it was kind of nice and i then heard about them making their own records and that did a cover of rolando's "jaguar" and then this one.

now "black water" is one of those detroit tunes that has become like a staple and i keep hearing that melody in a few other tunes (yunno how saunderson's/inner city's "good life" & "big fun" and derrick may's "string of life" melodies keep getting sampled and replayed all the time). this however is a quite faithful rendition but with a more groove and more focus on instrumentation.

the melody is quite present on this track like it was in the original and you hear in a multitude of ways, right from the get go it's from a vocal perspective, it's then joined by vibes and strings, i believe also a guitar and in pad form. but it's there and it's backed up by lovely percussion and drums and a punchy upright bass.

there is also a second version, here called the dub which starts off with the grand string arrangement that is the coda in the main version. it then goes into the groove but leaves off the melody but keeps some some occasional vocal stabs.

i love the main mix but i found this version to be the most useful in my sets and i tend to also pitch it down from it's 133 to the lower 120 mids for a better effect. any way you choose to work the tune or it's a fantastic version, hats off to those japanese people

buy here (junodownload)

madrid de los austrias - mas amor

this one i discovered  through a compilation and it's a big favourite of mine. it's the combination of a really good instrumentation, clean programming and a memorable hook; both vocal and piano. there is almost nothing to not like as it just hits you really nice and sticks to you, almost...

the almost comes with that while i love the track and find myself humming the tune sometimes, it's bit on the sugary side and it doesn't have enough bite. also those lyrics, let's just say that some languages give you the freedom of singing all sorts of both sweet and twisted lyrics and they will be a delight in the mix.

carol c's vocal effort on this is lovely but yeah i liked it more when i didn't figure out most of the lyrics, but it doesn't detract too much of my liking. i don't even care that the tune is something that has a cafebar/lounge compilation written all over it, i still hold a deep place in my heart for this tune and think it's excellent.

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i also recommend the remix by sergio flores' aka scientific soul, who got the resung vocals from the "weekender mix" to work with. that version was a bit more upbeat and had more of a swing to it and flores worked the groove nicely. a stonking funky house tune with a repeated flute riff and a chunky bassline set to a danceable rhythm. lovely

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