paganini traxx - zoe (timo maas remix)

as far as this one, i know i bought the record back in 2003 in a clearence sale and i think i grabbed it because i had seen the name on a few tracklists back then. probably also of the strength of timo maas, who i wasn't that much of a fan anyways but for in great condition and 20kr, i'll bite.

i listened to the record after i took it home and it really puzzled me how long that intro and outro was, but yeah it was a good track. the original back then always had me thinking, this track sounds like... and i couldn't name what, later on i realised i was thinking of underworld's "rez".

the original is nice but for something that has two musical ideas and only one being good it squanders about too much. maas did a simple but effective remix on this and he kept the groove which is the best part of the original. he also kept the buzzing "rez"-type lead and left that stupid high pitched acid-clone squeal in the bin.

maas also understood that there was no point in going with the track for too long as while the two-three good ideas it has, there is no point in doing more than tighten it up. now some other producer would add more but maas (and when i say timo maas, i of course mean maas, martin buttrich & andy bolleshon who worked together) wasn't really known for doing elaborate productions, (well under timo maas' own name).

but heaven knows why he didn't just give the five minutes that is the meaty part of his remix if that was truly the intent, but the two minutes who precede and sescede the main part are made for the dj. the track is brilliant as an intro or outro, the latter form hasn't been used that much but i still think it's a good last track if you weren't planning to end on bombast.

buy here (junodownload)

i do have to drop a word on the remixes that led to this re-release (should be noted that maas remix was part of a re-release as well but only after two years as the original was out in '96 and his remix in '98). i'm going to drop a qualified guess that funkagenda is the one who probably made some remix or whatnot and next thing you know the track it's out on toolroom trax.

garraud, funkangenda, blake jarrell & sam paganini himself all use timo maas' version as guideline but there is one big difference, the tempo is taken down from 138bpm to 128bpm. typical but they lost the plot when it comes the structure as they took one to many notes from the original mix.

while maas' remix was (in reality) a compact five minute track with a break that was as much as it needed to be, these new version have breakdowns that are senselessly too big and take too long. it's all big room fodder with the excuse of paganini's remix which isn't bigroom but repeats itself

in short, they really missed the boat on what timo maas tried to do with his remix.