the beloved - sweet harmony (live the dream mix)

so normally i would say that i discovered said song or in original form in my usual ways but i know how everyone caught they eyes on this song. you guessed it, on mtv of course as this was the song with the video where a large number of rather attractive ladies and one gentleman are naked. the latter mentioned also sang the song and was the driving force behind the beloved project and went by the name of jon marsh. i believe his wife helena marsh who was also in the group was in the video as well but i don't care about that as this isn't going to be about the video.

i took a liking to "sweet harmony" and it's a song that holds to this day and that isn't an unshared sentiment really. the song is what you get if you try to do smooth jazz in an early 80's house context. since the tempo was at 110 beats per minute i always wished for a proper 120+ bpm house mix and there are some in existence from the original release but also a few bootleg remixes.

when i bought the cd-single for "sweet harmony" i did know that neither of the two additional versions included were of the sort. both were done by jon & helena marsh and were slightly different version of the original in the same tempo. the main changes done to the "live the dream" and the "love the dub" mixes was that the 4x4 was taken out for a breakbeat.

this is something that i wouldn't have cared about say ten years ago as i was out for a bumping house mix but for some reasons, broken beats excite me more. even for this that is a simple programmed tr-808 breakbeat but it has more than that. the marsh's shift the mood on the track when they removed those swirly light keyboard sounds and just kept the pads. the bassline is also thickened up but the key thing is that they added an acidline. this sealed the deal for me as whatever was going to be my favourite version.

yeah, i am that predictable but the combination of acid, tr-808's and breakbeats is one the best in the world. when applied on one of the best songs in the world it's even better.

listen here (youtube)