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.

håkan lidbo - tuffa pojkar

my good friend jan henrik gave me the heads up on this one some years ago and it's one of those tunes that you either like/hate on the instant. it's a catchy tune that's not quite neo-electro and not quite italo but it's all robots and robots are awesome, well not when they take over the world and kill all mankind but that's just inevitable.

the track has a buzzing bassline that has almost the chord progression as new order's "blue monday" or some other track i can't seem to name at the moment. it has lidbo doing vocals in as mentioned before vocoder/talkbox but it's in swedish. i think this is what made me love this but i think it would be charming to a non-swedish speaking person as well.

if you want to know what the lyrics are about then it's about how "cool guys" are, they are not that insipid but they are inane enough. fact is that lidbo could have done the track in english and i'd be a fan, it's such a strong piece of pop music.

the rest of the ep contains of a cracking ghetto-tek meets electro type tune ("sex slave"), more robotic neo-electro fun ("i don't love you") and a house track with robotic elements and retro bass ("dj superstars"). i'm not a fan of the latter but i do think it's a well produced track. in fact the whole ep is brilliant. well recommended stuff here.

buy here (bandcamp)

etta james - all the way down

i was torn about talking about an etta james track or a shem mccauley/slacker track seeing as they both passed away recently. because i tend to talk about electronic music in general the obvious thing would be talk about the latter but it's more cliché to talk about the former.

i'm going with etta james because i've been blessed to hear a lot of her gems recently, and i'm not even talking about after she passed away. i've known who she was and that she could sing ferociously but a familiarity to her catalogue besides big ballad numbers like "at last" and "i'd rather go blind" was lost on me.

but like most people that get into funk, soul and all that jazz in recent times my nods towards discovering other tracks came from hiphop. but this time not in terms of sampling but hearing certain swedish dj's, producers and other profiles talk about certain songs.

swedish rapper petter mentioned "seven day fool" in an interview for his latest album and spouted out this platitude: "when a young singer talks about being dumped it doesn't resonate to me at all. but when etta james says that she is pissed because her man dumped her, you feel that in your heart".

(note "seven day fool" isn't about being dumped though, it's about being treated like shit by your partner and taking it because you really love him/her, and that is not the exact translated quote as i don't have the magazine in front of me)

while that is a horrendous cliché thing that can only lead to the everpresent "nothing was like it used to be", it did trigger me to want to hear the song. i liked it even though the lyrics disturbed me a bit but it was a mighty funky number. which led me to find more of that because while i like the soul ballads and whatnot, i like the funk.

fact was that it was rather easy to find just on youtube but on other blogs as well i could find recommendations on tracks. tracks like "jump into love", "you give me what you want" and this one "all the way down".

the track starts very norman whitfield like and it reminds me a lot of the temptation's "papa was a rollin' stone" (and that's not a bad thing since that's probably my favourite song of all time). but then it goes into a kind of sleek interpretation of what james brown was doing. etta james even had that same vocal presence of brown but a bit more raw.

the topic of the song is a bit like convoluted in the beginning since it comes off like she is saying loose words that fit the groove and is rhyming but listening closer it's about fame and class. very much like james brown in the songs that come off as ten minute jams ("talkin' loud & sayin' nothing") but have a topic, it's just it's lost in the groove.

i know i mentioning james brown (and by james brown i mean brown and the whole cast of j.b.'s) a lot now but my frame of references isn't completely big and some one else might say that they can name maybe sly stone or whatever but i have no clue. for me the kind of the raw funk that's set in it's groove and goes on for what can be fifteens minutes or even more is james brown since he used to let his band just go on and on and every once a while break but then go back to that groove.

should be noted that is much like modern dance music yes but anyways, this track is that groove for most of the track and it has one break/bridge and then it kicks back in. for the break it goes even more raw and bit more rock & roll with it's fuzz guitar and heavier bass groove. the blurb/review on allmusic says something about a janis joplin influence and while i wouldn't know about that since i haven't listened that much to joplin i do have to agree somewhat. it's definitely rocking, and rolling and funky. it's awesome.

buy here (7digital)

quant - miracle man

i've talked about quant and jonathan bäckelie (ernesto) before, it's obvious that i'm a fan but when you make funky music like this you can not be. this track was the first single from quant's second album "getting out", an album that is very much quant but also had some change in the sound.

the singles were much more of the digital funk numbers that you could hear on "quantastical quantasm" but the album but they leaned towards the jazzier sound. sort of makes sense as this album wasn't released on dot as the previous one and it was on austrian label echo.chamber which worked the kruder & dorfmeister/rainier trüby sound.

but as mentioned this track was quant as i fell in love with on the first lp, the synth & keyboard work is accented and the funk is heavy. the resonant almost acid-like bass is thick and gives it a nice stanky groove. the drums are punchy as usual and the track in general sound like how a good modern interpretation of 80's r&b should sound.

almost forgot to talk about ernesto's effort on this, it's in his usual high standard. he really feels the track and does the prince thing quite well. sort of how jamie lidell performs in his early funkier numbers as well. bäckelie is a powerful singer and i understand why he sang on so many of the gonkyburg massive tracks.

buy here (amazon)

fc/kahuna - microcuts

i picked up fc kahuna's "machine says yes" album a while ago and i did what i usually do when i take home a new piece of music. i skim through the tracks to asses if it's anything i can work in a mix or if it's a listening thing completely. i already knew some of the tracks and knew that there was going to be prime beats on it.

this one i almost thought it was going to be hiphop thing from the beginning, don't ask me how i came to that conclusion. but then the italo like melody came in and later a four on the floor came romping in, there was no doubt in my mind.

this was one of those album gems that's under the radar that could have an impact as long as the right person picks it up and works it again. i'm not saying that would be me but i will be working it. i love sort of mesh between the italo, the neo-electro and the bumping house groove.

you also have a stunning live bass is rumbling under neath and there is a whole deal of attention to detail. there is a number of small breaks that culminates with effects & filters and one goes into this double beat right before kicking in strong.

the melody sequence is also really hypnotic, it draws you in, well that has to be the reason since i've listened to this a few times in a row now and wants to be heard again. lovely track really. support and bang it out

buy here (junodownload)

mini reviews #8

eight edition now and for this one i asked another person i've had in mind of asking when i started this thing. he is jack moss and is an opinionated fucker (like me) and a music journalist, or not. his blog states that he is not but he's made clear elsewhere that what he wants to do. he's not anyone shy of a debate about music, arts or anything in general.

he is also a person who doesn't like when people like to describe as genres or subgenres as being dead just because the trend of said genre/subgenre is over, it's all a matter of digging deeper and so forth. he also try to knock out a few mixes here and there and they are mostly themed in a special manner and try to feature tracks that noone (read, the beatport top 10 followers) plays. yunno, how a real dj does it but i'm not sure he'll call himself that either....

01. actraiser - wip3out | youtube
punchy trance that wears dub influences, i like this and i like the idea of that reverbed out compressed 909 snare but it's annoying in the end.

02. amoebassassin - the rollercoaster | youtube
it does flow like a rollercoaster with the builds & release within the track, only heard oakey's mix before. i enjoyed this one more than his.

03. amorphous androgynous - ephidrena | youtube
nice heavy electronic dub, i've heard this one before and i enjoy it a lot

04. deep space organisms - into the blue | spotify
i liked this one a lot, it's trancy and ultra-melodic but in that good way that is quite rare.

05. faust vs. dälek - t-electronique | youtube
the heavy drums and guitar feedback caught my attention, it can't go downhill from there and it didn't. top stuff.

06. geomatic - shesqi | youtube
more drums, quite liked this as well. sounds like a bit like juno reactor circa bible of dreams.

07. basil poledouris - tower of set | youtube
while i may appreciate it when it's played in it's context, i did not like this one at all.

08. shpongle - periscopes of consciousness (greg hunter edit) | youtube
the first half is horrendous but once the taiko drums kick in, it's tolerable but then the vocals come in again... ugh.

09. taho - the sun star | spotify
good melodic prog but it's also sort of wallpaper.

10. union jack - water drums | youtube
heard this one before plenty of times and as much it's near cretu & sanchez levels of cliché, i still like it.

thanks for those ten jack. and as always i asked if he wanted to anything extra about his picks and his response was:

these are all tracks I find "interesting". none of them are wildly experimental, more subtly subversive. i want to use most of them in a dj set but can't make them work, although this tracklist might flow weirdly well as a mixtape.

right on.

culture beat - der erdbeermund

this song came to me when i was going through a crate of records that a mate of mine had bought for dirt cheap and asked if i wanted to rummage through. i knew that culture beat had done tracks before the big breakthrough known as "mr. vain", infact i like "no deeper meaning" and have worked it on some euro sets.

most true heads know that torsten fenslau (r.i.p.), the driving force and producer of culture beat (before his untimely death in late '93), had done credible records and really good tracks. most known is abfahrt tracks and it's not-quite-body, not-quite-trance classic "alone (it's me)" and a few other tracks.

i have been given to believe that certain projects were meant for the "underground" and some were for the mainstream and i think culture beat was not meant as underground but this track still shoots for it. it's a track that heads in the know talk about when mentioning fenslau and culture beat.

while i like the track and wouldn't mind playing it out the fact is and it's probably something that's been pointed out before, it's just a re-take on mr. fingers' "can you feel it". the big difference is that the vocal isn't chuck roberts or martin luther king as in larry heard's original, it's klaus kinski.

this track is based around his reading of the paul zech translation of a francois villon's poem (which in german is known as) "ich bin so wild nach deinem erdbeermund". this is intarwebs information since i had no clue on the origins of this one so i don't know the original french title, tried looking it up and i got nowhere.

fingers inc's original came out in '88 and as i wasn't even concious of that track but taken in consideration that the track did get a lot of attention back then and it probably became an insta-classic. maybe that statement is bullshit given the hype that concerns all early chicago and detroit releases but "can you feel it" must have reached this iconic status quite fast given how much it's still is being jizzed over.

fenslau put out his version the following year and saying that he was just remaking a house classic that i want to write seems stupid as even though the original was a hit, he could have easily redone joe smooth's "inside my mind" or whatever. i call this a remake of "can you feel it" but it does have some enought merit grant it to be played and not just be referred as a clone. 

the dark acapella intro in "der erdbeermund" is lovely and sets a nice tone, the groove is really nice and while it does not have the same thump of the bassline or as good of a ride-hat that larry heard worked out it does give the same vibe. fenslau added some own melodies to the table including some plucked keys and a lovely guitar.

as i said it is heavily inspired by "can you feel it" but it does bring new aspects to the table and does them well. i do have to say though that given between the vocal and the instrumental, i'll mostly play the instrumental but i can easily play the vocal.

original vocal: listen here (youtube)

instrumental: listen here (youtube)

sweep - running up that hill (jam's labyrinth mix)

i saw the cdsingle in a charityshop i believe and i've heard of this one before but i never actually heard the track but i think there was a consensus on that jam el mar's remix was a classic. then again i think the single was for 10kr and it had the name jam el mar on it, i would have bought it anyways or anyhow.

i did listen to the original cover version of the tune but i'll be damned if i remember how it sounded. the jam el mar remix however hit all the right notes and i did remember it because of that weird snare in the middle of the track.

jam el mar's take is very much like his works at the time and it's deep, very trancy and it just builds and builds. it's quite lovely, right from the intro that creates a just a smidge too much tension for the track. after that it's just subtle layers upon layers that slowly grows onto the track and the end result is quite hypnotic.

it doesn't even matter that el mar bring in a soft pad to play the original melody and create a setting for the vocal, the overall groove is that hypnotic and there isn't a disruption. the track just goes until it gets heavier and heavier and right at it's most powerful it stops there. the sweeping pad from the intro makes a re-appearence but in reverse and it still creates as much tension as in the beginning.

i think most people who like classic trance (this means '90-'96 not '99) know of this tune but i didn't and my life was slighty empty without it. now i just have to find a way to actually work the track into a set, something tells me i will fuck up a many of times until i get it right.

listen here (youtube)

j.axel - love letters (henrik b remix)

i got the heads up on this one in 2005 and the skinny given to me was that it was gorgeous house stuff and that i should look into the works of jonathan axelsson (j.axel / ronin). i did so and discovered some great tracks including this and "you give me love" and a few others.

but what really surprised me was seeing that axelsson had gotten some of his fellow swedish techno producers to do remixes. most of the guys (pär grindvik, hardcell & devilfish) who did it where known for making much harder techno but people like joel mull (who did a remix with pär grindvik) and henrik b had done housier tracks even though they are associated with that swedish techno sound.

mind you i don't know if all of them have gone into trendier or slower territories after '07 since i really don't kept in touch nor care but i do know that henrik b had a change of sound so the idea of henrik b making house (and deep house) was a little off at the time.

anyhow henrik b's take on axelsson & suryanto's light deephouse-bordering-on-lounge vocal duet tune is a stunning track. he builds up a thicker groove but keeps the atmosphere that axelsson had in the original. much like the original this song is built around the vocal and it even takes a bigger role than the original.

the lush pads set a backdrop to the track while the groove grounds the track. the bassline is quite present since the track still has a stripped down feel. there isn't a heavy amount of useless layers that is meant for the big room soundsystems. it's just is and does what it does quite well. i fell in love with the tune almost on the first listen and i still think it works and should be supported to this day.

buy here (junodigital)

the spinners - working my way back to you/forgive me, girl

heard this one first on kevin smith & scott mosier's smodcast on one especially good episode and they used it as an intro and it grabbed me instantly. it had that kind of not quite rhythm and blues and not quite disco thing to it even though it's a four on the floor and it's a danceable number.

i never heard it before or at least consciously nor in it's original form as it's mainly a cover of the four seasons song. the main difference is that it's a medley and features a second song in the later half of the song but it's similarly themed to the four seasons song.

while i think it's really groovy and like this song, it puzzles me as time after time these kind of songs eventually pop up and become big. reason why is the topical content of the song, which in this song is "i had you, i cheated on you, you broke up with me/you are pissed at me, i want you back and i really love you".

the spinners have some of the smoothest voices which makes this "apology" seem sincere but look at it in text form and it's just douchebaggery at it's worst. i don't get how people like these songs (no, i have idea either, well apart for the rhythm being good) but sure enough they get big.

just recently (well, the recent enough) there was that stupid jason derulo song called "whatcha said" and i absolutely despised that song. not just because he (and when i mean he, i mean the producers) sampled an imogen heap song called "hide & seek" that's about from the other point of view in this topic. it's that he sounded so insincere and like a jackass.

then again had the beat been better and jasons's voice been better or smoother like the spinners did i'd probably would have eaten up his story wholesale and been playing the song in my sets. i want to hate this song because it's not really a topic you should endorse but it's so good.

buy here (7digital)

reuben wilson - hold on, i'm comin'

i bought this blue note compilation called "the lost grooves" in a charity shop along with some other compos but this one said, get this now right at the cover. the blurb on it says "rare and previously unissued slices of funk from the vaults of blue note '67-'70".

now granted that this record was put out in '95, so these cuts must have been explored later on but there are some heavyweight players featured as main artists and of course as sidemen. this track which kicks the compilation right off had me locked on and when i was going through the cd to see what was on it, i kept scrolling back to this track.

that's mostly because it kicks off in a right fashion from the get-go and with funk like this that spans for 8 minutes, it's a good sign the arrangement have enough faith to start heavy and it doesn't lose that weight. this track of course is the isaac hayes/david porter composition "hold on, i'm comin'" as made famous by sam & dave.

after falling in love with this track i did some small research on how something this good could have been left off  a regular album. i found out later that it wasn't made at a regular album session hence why it wasn't on "love bug" originally (but it was added as a bonus track on the '97 reissue).

this track is done with an all-star cast with lee morgan on trumpet, george coleman on tenor saxophone, grant green on guitar, jimmy lewis on bass. lewis is uncredited on the liner notes of the album, i looked it up on discogs to find who played bass i heard a bass line on the track and wondered who it was.

i thought it was wilson playing the bass notes on his organ, as i've heard that in certain jazz combos (without a bass player) an organ player fills in the lower end. all of which, including wilson do a great effort on this and all their solo moments are top notch. the best moment has to be right between green's solo and wilson's second solo as there is a slight calm before the storm thing going on.

i left of introducing one and it's of course idris muhammed on drums and his rhythm is relentless and outstanding on it. infact his groove on this have inspired me to try to work it in my sets as this track is too funky not to be played with house music or broken beats or anything with a funky touch.

buy here (7digital)

amr diab - habibi (rhythm masters vocal mix)

in 1996 amr diab managed to score a hit that was so big in the arabic countries it managed to cross over outside of the region. thanks to the diaspora mostly but some other reasons might had to something with it. the sound of record was the main reason as it sounded like a mellow gypsy kings record.

"nour al ain" (translation: "light of my eye") as the record is actually called really was everywhere that year and following. in common terms outside of the arabic countries it was known as "habibi" (translation "darling") since diab repeats the word constantly in the insanely catchy chorus.

i believe that it's with this song the dimuative phrase habibi-pop came about since it just personified the new type of arabic pop song that started borrowing influences outside of the region. much like the songs in the western pop charts happened to be about love (in one way or another) and repeated "baby", "darling" and other overused endearments the arabic songs started to use the same tricks

i never knew that amr diab even did a version with verses sung in english until i discovered this oddity on kazaa over ten years ago. i found the concept funny then and think it's still bizarre that this single had not just an english version (that was produced by none other than stuart chricton) but remixes by few of the big names at time (rhythm masters, klubbheads, matthew roberts/phunk phorce & shazz).

emi really tried to sell the record by making sure that if the beats were hot, people wouldn't mind the fact that diab's english verses were terrible. but then again most of the remixes focused on the hook beside shazz's main version. all off them who did the remixes in their distinctive sounds at the time. shazz with a lowkey deep house rerub, klubbheads doing a really stupid hard house meets speed garage version, rhythm masters with pumping house mixes and roberts going into 4x4 garage but with a slighty darker slant.

when i heard of the remix pack the first time the mixes i geared towards was rhythm masters but i can say nowadays that shazz's dub is great. i didn't like that one at all on the first listen but i think it's a great production but i'd liked a full instrumental since the occasional vocal stab just doesn't work.

however i figured out by doing some searching on junodownload that the remix is essentially a rework of one or two tracks from shazz's 1998 album. those tracks are "pray" and "escapade" and i'd play those two over this one had not it been a full instrumental.

but anyhow back to the rhythm masters main mix since i decided to focus on it. their modus operandi at the time fast, funky, pumping, clubby house and this is no exception. they kicked up the tempo right up and worked that hook to it's fullest but sped up without timestretching. there is heavy looping to match the pounding tribal big room backing track.

that's the key word, "big room" since this track isn't subtle in any way, even their dub (it's known as the diskfunktional mix) is big and funky with loops, samples and filters worked over that pounding beat but the dub has a slighty quainter break but it's not classy, it's just a few notches down.

truth be told that i'd play the dub if i'd bust out some older olav basoski records but the vocal mix doesn't hold up. neither does the dub really in modern stylings but with context of those type of record it's a fish in the waters. like with most of those records, funky techno and harder french filterfunk tracks the key way is to actually not play the whole record but the best parts.

listen here (youtube)

noticed that i didn't go in depth about klubbheads or matthew roberts remixes? yeah, if the rhythm masters dub barely holds up, the version by former and latter really doesn't. well completely not true, the lesser vocal of the robert's mixes is decent. but none the less klubbheads remix is a steaming hot pile of turd.

new order - blue monday (andrea remix)

i remember i heard this version right around the time i discovered hardfloor's awesome remix of the original. back then i was not a fan of either two versions by jam & spoon but i slowly was turned around. it had to do with me not understanding dub at the time.

but infact i didn't like jam & spoon's main dance mix (called the "manuela mix") either since i didn't like how they transformed the original into a german trancer. but this concept with jam & spoon taking on a remix and turning in a dance version and a slow version wasn't new. 

they did it also with moby's "go" where the slow mix mix is a two parter with first section being psuedo-ambient and the second section being a dub reggae section. that second direction is the better of the two parts and i even extended that for an edit, but i also sped it up from 60bpm (or actually 120bpm halftime) into 90bpm.

the section part of the "go" remix is how this version was approached, it introduces the bass almost upfront and then shortly after the riff slowly creeps up but in an synthy organ type patch. additional soundscaping is brought on such as pads that were from the original but tweaked a bit here.

i'm happy that i turned around on this because i would have been lost a great version of this classic. i also really like how the one phrase that jam & spoon used isn't completely the line that is associated with the song. "how does it feel" is how this song is known but then it goes into "when your heart grows cold". which is the ending lines but of the song but jam & spoon introduce the vocal with this line.

listen here (youtube)

stakka bo - great blondino (alien abduction mix)

i'm quite sure that i never heard the original back when this was released but i did hear of the title because it sounded funny. stakka bo or johan renck is one of those guys who is a bit underrated musically, i've heard a lot of his backcatalogue on later days and he had great songs and really good lyrics.

"here we go" is one of those where i didn't know that it was a sarcastic commentary to modern consumerism, then again with my command of english i wouldn't know anything about that in '92. the song could easily been about how he much liked icecream, all that matters was that insanely catchy hook.

anyhow with this song i saw the single a while ago in a store, i don't remember if it was charityshop or secondhand but i wouldn't buy it but i saw names who did remixes on it that attracted me to it. first of all, lucky people center and nåid who did a slowburning dubby techno version, saint etienne who did a wonderful version that is very mid 90's saint etienne. 

but of course the main attraction of me was the "alien abduction mix" by monkey mafia or jon carter. i've mentioned before that i'm a fan of jon carter and quite like his beatmaking. here he kicked up the tempo a bit and used a few selected bits from the original and went in his own direction. 

that way happened to take a swift route to jamaica as it incorporates the "bam bam" riddim. infact the original bassline uses the same notes as the infamous riddim (who's mostly known as "murder she wrote" by chaka demus & pliers). carter doesn't stay in the dancehall completely and it overall sounds very mid 90's uk hiphop-flavoured big beat.

in the same lines another favourite monkey mafia remix that is an favourite, "filthy" originally by saint etienne. but then again also like "tear the whole joint up". this remix is very jon carter and it's really great.

buy here (7digital)

christian falk - make it right (true faith remix)

the original is an all-time favourite track and it was a magic moment the first time i heard the song back in '99. it's an house tune for all time and a perfect set-starter with it's piano intro. falk really nailed it with the vibes and demetrius' soulful vocals on top.

so naturally this track is in my conciousness quite alot, much like stonebridge's remix of robin s or miranda's "gnocchi" to name a few. it was either on discogs or youtube i found this remix recently and i can honestly say that had i heard it only five years ago i'd wouldn't have liked it. but my mind was turned around on uk garage during this period.

i know that i didn't get uk garage except for a few tracks but i think it had to do with that i was exposed to crappy tunes. of course noone is going to like 2-step if they are introduced to it by something like shanks & bigfoot's "sweet like chocolate", but i was shown better tunes and i understood the music more.

for this version takes the original and tweaks the groove a bit and redoes the bass but keep the vibes (but here sounding more an electric piano than vibraphones). it's a good case of just translating the song into a slightly different vibe but where they still are rooted with that garage sound.

where as the original is a classic garage houser (in the style of masters at work and blaze) this is the uk sound and the breakbeat version of the that sound. ishkur states on his site that he doesn't get how the uk sound is any related to the us sound and the fact that he doesn't like the uk garage but there is a logical progression.

i am well aware that he says things as a joke or in means of provocation but it's just that modern uk garage does not sound like masters at work but that link is still there and mj cole and few others still can prove it. but in short the uk garage sound became the way it did because of natural progression where as the new york sound stayed in it's classic form.

to understand how there is a few key players and they are all americans, and there is a funny irony about the uk side of garage that prides itself of being a very british sound that even though their sound is distinctly british, all the innovations that pushed it towards the sound came from americans.

although armand van helden's influence came from england but basically without m.a.w. you wouldn't have m.k. and without m.k. you wouldn't have todd edwards who along with grant nelson (who was doing a combination of m.a.w. and m.k. stylings) would set the blueprint to original uk garage.

armand van helden is said to be the one to take the reese basslines (again, even though this is a jungle thing, it's from detroit) and the aestethics of jungle and make house out of it "inventing" speed garage or bassline house or 4x4 as it's called now.

anyone reading this might be wondering "what did any of this last bit have to do with the tune in question" and the answer is nothing, i just had to get that thing off my chest so back to the tune in mind. so yeah, when i first heard this version, accidentally by clicking the wrong thing on discogs it was the version of "make it right" that had been missing all my life.

listen here (youtube)

also there was other remixes than this that i actually heard a few years after i heard the original but back then i hated them since i thought the original was far superior. i don't know what i was thinking really since tommy musto's versions are sublime as well, both vocal and dub. but richie santana's and sal dano's efforts haven't resonated with me other than they are decent.

gina - let me free (vocoder version)

i mentioned in the entry about the shep pettibone remix of new order that i was on a huge italo kick a while back. i got hung up on a lot of songs including this and after doing a lot of digging i found out that a whole truck load where churned out by a selected few. the most prolific person being the producer behind this track, being michiel van der kuy.

this producer was a master of working those synths and really knew how to write hits after another. this track wasn't a big prolific hit but could have been, it has a hook screaming "why wasn't this as big as the laserdance or koto tunes".

the track is very van der kuy from the groove and the way he works the drum-machines to that buzzing synthesizer play. compelete with different arpeggios in the verses/bridges and hook sections and string fills. it's glorious. the only downside with the original dance version (called so on the record) was the vocalist, i just didn't like her vocal timbre and it came of as too dramatic.

i think her tone and the way she accentuated her vocals in a diva-esque way just became epic overload. it doesn't work when having layers of synths and sounds that's loud and full and then slap on a big vocal. usually for something like this you'd wish for an instrumental, however no such version was made by van der kuy.

what he did instead was to have this version with the vocal sung with a vocoder. the result is glorious, awesome and fifty other adjectives like that because robots fit with this kind of synthy italo. i was obsessed with this tune after hearing it the first time and never forgot when i saw the record in a store clearance sale in stockholm. i had to have it. it's such an great track.

listen here (youtube)

nancy ajram - ashkaraballi

i think i got introduced to nancy ajram like most people, that monster hit "ah wo noss". i heard that performed on so many weddings and other gatherings people from middleeast get down and party. reason being that it was infectious and a great habibi pop song.

later on i discovered older songs with ajram and at first i was quite infatuated with her first two albums who had  production in a more traditional musicality. meaning less obvious influence of computers and machines. keyboards and synths has been a thing since the 90's but the clear influences of very western production came around in the late 90's and during the the 00's.

eventually you heard arabic singers do their songs on either tracks that sounds like cheiron, darkchild (or any hot production sound at the time) or like the turkish guys and straight on dance music. with prominent four on the floors and synths that comes straight out of the latest m.o.s. release.

this song from nancy ajram's third album sound sort of like a modern habibi pop production, there is obvious western influences but the traditional string instruments and durbakke is still prominent. since all habibi pop songs are about love and especially troublesome romance, this is no exception. 

it's a cheery production but ajram speaks of a lover that she gave her heart to but is playing games with her. she is sick of him eventually and tells him that she doesn't want him anymore. i really like this song but it's from a production point of view actually since my knowledge of arabic is only limited to understanding conversations and such.

that acapella intro with four backup singers doing the chorus grabbed me instantly, the second thing was the bassline which sounds like a synthy one but it moves in 16th notes and swings a bit as well. the track overall is well made and sounds like it could have been a single.

buy here (7digital)

seba & lenk - everyman for himself

i think i found this one through discogs or google but i was looking to see which one was the last drum & bass production that jesper dahlbäck (here in his old lenk moniker) did. he'd quite often do them with fellow swedish producer seba who he worked with on various projects, both house&techno and jungle.

this one grabbed me instantly with it's crisp rolling breaks, sharp drum programming and heavy bassline but also the vocal by robert manos. his presence on tracks changes the whole thing and while this record could easily do without his vocal, it lights up quite nicely. he does his usual changing from wailing harmonies to singtalking but in the fast tempo.

manos' tells a story about a struggle in the city and life in general and he comes of both random and coherent, but not in that karl hyde style even though it reminds me much of it.

listen here (youtube)

mini reviews #7

seventh edition now and as the last one, very long overdue. but it wasn't my fault, it was her fault sort of as she's been a bit unreachable. she's another one that i asked her from the beginning but she was reluctant but finally things have come to order. she is scottish woman by name of kayleigh mackie and she likes music as much as i but finds that i listen to mostly stuff that she's never heard of. as she was named after marillion's 1985 hit "kayleigh", it's her favourite song of all time..... i've never heard of that until i talked to her so she did introduce me to something new.

01. wiley - boom blast | youtube
this is prime dancefloor material but it does nothing for me.

02. the klf - what time is love (pure trance) | youtube
it's technically not trance, but this is trance and it's one of the best songs of all time

03. talla 2xlc - no in between (john o'callaghan remix) | youtube
it's not bad but this comes of as a poor mans version of paul van dyk's "the riddle" and the vocals are terrible.

04. pulp victim - the world (moonman club mix) | youtube
there are a few other version i rate higher than ferry's own remix but i do still enjoy this track.

05. avicci - levels | youtube
i tolerate this but i don't like it and i think the etta james sample works better in the context of flo rida's "good feeling" even though i hate that song. i think this song would have been better instrumental.

06. simian mobile disco - hustler (armand van helden remix) | youtube
i love the original and this comes of as more second rate felix da housecat than armand van helden. it's decent.

07. kidda - under the sun (herve's ain't no sunshine remix) | youtube
i like this one and the way herve worked those amen-like drums along with the piano in the break is nice

08. otis redding - hard to handle | youtube
this so funky. one of the best songs of all time.

09. nas - if i ruled the world (feat. lauryn hill) | youtube
classic song, not my favourite nas track but i love this song

10. foster the people - pumped up kicks | youtube
i've heard this song a few times and while it's really groovy and i like the bassline, the rest is nothing special.

thanks for those ten kayleigh. and as always i asked if she wanted to anything extra about his picks and her response was:

no.

right on.

mj cole - sincere (black science house ride)

i think for this song i never heard the original first but the miguel migs remix since i was quite a fan of him when i was getting into the naked music sound. i quite enjoy migs version still but this tune has quite a few remixes and for the regular four on the floor ones i found that the most interesting ones came from when "sincere" was getting it's moment in the sun.

i bought the cdsingle on club tools which had the original versions, the birth of cool mix from german producer lars behrenroth (who did a great funky latin inspired version) and the black science orchestra mixes. beedle and his companions kept the vocal but redid the bass in a radical way. it's heavier and it wants to pull you down to the ground in a really good way.

there is a whole lot of the usual keyboard goodness that uschi classen adds on black science orchestra tracks. her solo spot in the middle of the track provide a good contrast to the strip down that follows where the bass gets even heavier if my ears aren't deceiving me.

the track follows a structure of a small build before taking it down again and then building and building. right where you get a wonderful coda with trumpet stabs, keyboard noodling, trombone hits and repeated chops of the vocal, it just all ends right when it's the heaviest. 

now to be honest i think jazzanova's remix is much more classier but i think this one rates highest in all the versions of "sincere".

listen here (youtube)

legacy of sound - happy (full vocal gypsy mix)

the original hadn't been in my mind for a while until i heard about the creation of the song and the project on a swedish radio show called "livet är en fest". the thing that popped in my head then was that i noticed how much it copied cece peniston's "finally".

i've heard the song countless times since it was a hit in '93 and i've danced to it countless times and i still really enjoy it. but the connection to "finally" which is also a childhood favourite was lost on me, even then i'd pick up on tracks copying each other. those piano riffs are near identical and the structure and production lifts a few other notes from david morales

this version i discovered much later and found it pleasing since it worked better in a setting where i'm playing eurodance. the problem with certain of the housier europroductions is that they sound less beefy with other tracks, especially when i mix it with other tracks that have the rolling basslines and driving rhythms. i also tend to pitch up eurodance and the original doesn't lend itself to that.

the band of gypsies who did the remix took the original and added fuller beats, more synth work and of course a really driving bassline. there is also some acidy twitters that really tickled my fancy and the piano molds together into the beat which works out really nice. with that the omnipresent "finally" influence is lost and it becomes a better track because of it.

listen here (grooveshark)

by the way, the original itself was produced and written by two gentlemen that went under the monikers "snowman" and "d-bag". they are nowadays some bigshots and record execs and are no other than peter swartling and anders bagge. while those names are synonymous for swedish idol, they have done more than that and are responsible for quite a few hit records.

azzido da bass - dooms night (dub mix)

i can't remember the first time i heard the timo maas remix which is the defacto original of "dooms night" but i do know that i bought this exact record in a bargain bin about eight/nine years ago. while i've heard the original and dub mix when i listened to the record before i can honestly say that i never recalled how it sounded.

the only thing i remembered was that there was a reason why the all the versions done after this remix hit the scene was based on maas' rerub. the original sounded like a cross between stripped down german hardtrance and uk hardhouse and not in that charming way either. it had an awful lead that dumonde managed to salvage by replacing the sound in their remix.

but the reason this one came into my head was that i was talking to my mate ian about some tunes and he mentioned "dooms night". the thing that popped into my head was that i wonder if the original & dub is available anymore, since azzido da bass' revamp for the latest rerelease was based on maas remix as well.

there is the funny thing that on the releases after maas' remix, the original club mix is labeled "real club mix" because of the fact that timo maas' version being the most popular version to be played. sure enough you can find it on junodownload and other places but not the dub mix. i did a search for it and did find it on youtube.

i was always given to believe that maas used next to nothing from the original from the original but when i heard the dub again, things made more sense. it wasn't minimal usage at all but he didn't use the lead. he employed the backing bass rhythm that's covered up by the overly large synth-line as the lead. the distinct bass-womp is from the original  and so is another sound that's somewhat prominent in his remix.

however just taking out most stupid element from the original doesn't salvage the dub mix, it still retains everything else. the result is a somewhat generic hard-trancer that personifies "umpa-umpaa", since it magnifies that very prominent offbeat bassline. i don't know if this track could work well in a modern context, i could have worked well as a punchy filler over ten years ago but it's far past it's expiration date.

listen here (youtube)