jonatan bäckelie - song

as this is probably my fifth or six entry about jonatan bäckelie/ernesto, i am not going to really do my usual starting paragraph where i talk about my relation to the artist and some musical history etc. need less to say i am a fan of bäckelie in various musical forms and as i follow him on twitter he's been giving hints of a musical restart and it took shape and form yesterday with this song, aptly titled just that.

bäckelie informed me that it was a cover of a lewis taylor song from taylor's first album and that it was one of his personal favourite tracks. for me it could have been an original as i didn't know about lewis taylor or this song but i did my small research after this small revelation. he also told me that it was in tribute but he didn't like how the coda of the original was so short so he expanded on that tangent.

for me it was news in either way but safe to say you could hear the traces of bäckelie's prior productions and sound in this cover. the contrast between the cold electronic (post)-dubstep beats and and jonatan's warm vocals has been tried upon a few times with great success. i also struck upon how much a marvin gaye-influence you could hear in the song but bäckelie was quick to point out that came from taylor, which is true as i heard the original.

it's a fairly faithful cover but with a sort of new twist and one of the key changes, beside the expanding of the endsection, is the bass. the way it pulsates and rattles in the bottom end is right up my alley and together with the rest of the sound it's brilliant. pat yourself on a back for this one jonatan as it's really good.

buy here (itunes)

lynchy dada - wake up

heard this one through soundcloud and an account called futuregarage.net that highlights all sorts of new bassy music that is being released. often i try to look into more of the artists/acts if one of the songs is to my liking. "wake up" came to my hearing about a month ago and i was taken a back by the atmosphere and the laidback but somewhat hypnotic notion to it.

from what i gather lynchy dada is an offshoot of a project called mrs. dada that consists of frenchmen guillaume lenoir and ivan carel. they make music that would be categorized as future bass and that basicly means post dubstep and all sorts of other mutations. but for this project lenior teams up with vivien deneuville & céline lanquetin and the focus is less on the dancey tip and more chillwave or dreampop like.

it's headnodding music at it's finest and it's really sets a mood right from the beginning where a long sustained pad is being ducked while you hear fragments of field recording sounds. a really slow rhythm is eventually established and the general motif is established as light vocals come in and grace the soundscape. you can hear everything being drenched in reverb and effects and i like the peak moment in the middle right before it break down and almost resets the track.

at that the end of this middle section you hear some nice darker vibes for the tail end of the track and it's all these small sounds scattered around the track that makes this track brilliant. coupled together with the long synthetic pad that make it push forward or float on until the end of the track. brilliant.

listen here (soundcloud)

mike sunday - hiding

found out about this one when i was on soundcloud on the look for remixes say lou lou's "julian" and canadian producer & dj had done a bootleg. i liked it and did the customary thing of seeing what else was on for showcasing and right up top there was this track called "hiding". he tagged it deep house but i would more likely to play it with some of the progressive house from a decade ago.

starts out with a big lucious reverbed groove with and it quickly gets to business with this vibraphone-y lead line and some female vocals. here is where i explain that sunday has sampled a version of "hiding" by american singer-songwriter meiko, whom i've never heard of prior to hearing this version. but i do like both versions at hand but i prefer mike sunday's rendition more. the bassline and the lead really works well and i like those small bits of field recording sounds.

listen here (soundcloud)

joel mull - warm path

another record that comes from my adventures of digging in bargain bins and when i saw a cd single of a joel mull ep called "blue shades system react ep" dating 1996, my interest definitly piqued. from what i gather now it is among the first records that was released under mull's own name. it's a interesting three tracker but it's also one that bears it's date through the sound.

the title track "blue shades" is nice i think the focus should have been a little more on the pads and less on the tr-909 programming. third track "porkman" is a minimal cut with a deep bass that actually works the drummy aestethic to a good extent. for me i could easily hear it be played in a modern set if you work three deck or do layering in traktor and such.

which leaves "warm path" whom is a driving cut that stars with a tom-loop playing the same the portamento as the bassline. it's an effective buildup but when the track gets going, as the bassline gets in full buzz and resonates, it's a beast of it's own. to be honest it sounds a bit trancey but it has to with it's repetitive styling and the sound of some technotrance from the same time.

mull keeps it all very interesting throughout with new segments and sounds making their splash but then being a part of the groove. a tight one to boot also and the track definitly the saving grace on this release and something i could play in my sets any day of the week.

listen here (epitonic)

filur - you & i (eric s remix)

my memory might fail me but i bought this single up on it's release and but i don't really remember if i had heard "you & i" prior. it was probably a case of buying because i liked prior single "i want you" that i've mentioned prior and because the names that remixed the song excited me. they are moonbotica, fellow danes bandit and trentemøller and my countryman eric s. now i knew that the latter two names were what i was gearing for as i wasn't that a fan of moonbotica.

with trentemøller i knew of with "le champagne" on naked music and a few other records that was released around this time. i could have easily written about it as it is an amazing remix with all the trimmings and it sort of reminds me another track of his called "the forest". it's very soundscapey and deep with a heavy bass and great use of the strings from the original.

but i'm going to highlight eric s' remix as it's the one that i've played the most over the years and is also my favourite version, with trentemøller's remix as a close second. this version is probably the most straight forward housey of the bunch with it's round rhythmic bassline and sunshine groove driving it. all of the strings and atmosphere and the sombre attitude that the original uses is retranslated into a different mode.

the original is a great track but it's housemusic made for home listening or during the early hours and it has to do with it's groove. even though it actually gears towards the dancefloor in some respect, i don't really see it happening. eric s does a great job at creating that blend between hed kandi and body & soul it shines through with the percussion, the bassline as mentioned prior but also all the warm keys. lovely track.



buy here (itunes)

shakira - ojos así (mirage mix)

the original song was something i heard on mtv during the so called latin explosion and along with "tú" and "inevitable" but this was the one that grabbed me. it definantly had to do with the arabic elements and i'm a sucker for that sort of fusion but this blend between latin and arabic comes natural in two ways. first foremost it's shakira's heritage as she's lebanese on through her father's side and spanish & italian on her mother's side. which brings to mind that there is a large amount of lebanese people that emigrated to mexico and that has eventually spread across both up and down the american continents.

all of the people of middle eastern descent loved this song and it really helped that it included a few lines sung in arabic, along with the durbake and ud that is audible. this is also probably why the internet had people believe that the song was a collaboration with popular egyptian singer amr diab. i also believed it hook, line and sinker and really didn't question it until a few years later when it was prove to be false information. that didn't really stopped me liking the song though and when i saw the single in my local recordshop a few years later i bought it without thinking.

i still don't know why the single was re-released in 2003 but it included two remixes and by prolific latin remixer & proder pablo flores so it was nothing to question. both version included were part of the original package in 1999 and the reason i said so was that i had heard the clubby thunder mix before but this as well in miscredited form as a "thunderpuss remix". something tells me it was so because around the time thunderpuss were the big name remixers along with hex hector following a couple of smash hits.

when i looked in the credits for the cdsingle it was when i found out that diab had nothing to to do with the song. also found out that pablo flores had to do with the production of "ojos así" along with shakira and flores' partner javier garza. however my favourite version of it all was the last version on the single called the mirage mix and this played up the arabic and latin elements and removed the four on the floor from the song. i get the feeling that flores (and maybe garza and shakira) just let loose and had a jam session with all the elements recorded for the original and this was the result. just pure brilliance.

buy here (itunes)

kosheen - hide u (e.s. dubs remix)

bought this along the cdsingles for "hungry" and "catch" a year or so after their release and on most of the versions it was a few versions i geared for. for "catch" it was ferry corsten's remix and hungry had a great rerub from bent and one from decoder & substance. on "hide u" the version was of course the john creamer & stephane k remix as that was the hit.

the e.s. dubs remix by dave jones (aka zed bias and maddslinky who is actually credited on the remix) was one i caught on to several years later. it was actually one of the first remixes to be released of "hide u" along with a version by young offendaz, who isn't that good. it was released before john creamer took the acapella of "hide u" and knocked out a bootleg remix that would prove itself so successful to go on to be the single & video version.

however i wasn't into uk garage at the time and i thought little of jones' remix but as i revisited the remix a few years i couldn't stop playing it. the drums were smacking and the bassline swayed around the bottom end in the best way possible. if i must remark on something then it's the clap that has a squashy trail and i don't really like it. otherwise it's well done, from the pads to the drums and the way the vocal floats on top of it with great effects.

buy here (itunes)

amber - anyway (steve porter's mix 1)

chances are that this was introduced to me through a set but since it was on bedrock it could have been through different ways. during the phase i had when i was sick of regular epic trance the i did start to gear towards bedrock, baroque and all the labels delivering progressive house & trance. however it was heard the first time, it always struck me how weird it was for a label like bedrock to release anything containing something like this.

steve porter's name wasn't estranged to the label as bedrock released a track the year before this that was done in collaboration with john debo called "deported". but amber was as far removed from the sound of bedrock with the regular output of her music, if you don't count the deep dish remixes for "sexual" that was commissioned by ministry of sound. i'm not completely sure on the state of release but from what i've read amber's label tommy boy didn't go for these remixes at the time of the original.

never the less they got a release a year after the original single release of "anyway" and they use quite a lot from chris cox's original production. the main difference is that porter removes everything else and then shapes it into two different cuts, the a-side is the more moody and something for early in the sets and the flip is when you need to get down to business. for me i fell in love with the first mix, and i've used this sentence quite a lot the last couple of entries, but it was that bassline.

the mix on the b-side has a more of a rhythmical bassline where as this one uses one of those legato basslines that progressive house & trance producers utilised in almost in abundance during the period. one of the main draws for this remix was it's structure as it was done with breakbeats in the first half of the song and then flips into four on the floor. the change isn't that noticable either and but it's good to have something this like to when switching and wanting to do it smooth.

as mentioned the bassline was the focal point for when i first heard the remix but the atmosphere and amber's vocals was something that i also really liked. the pads was broad and bellowing and you hear amber's vocal hazing through with effects and then halfway in it's heard clearly the first time. it's done brilliantly and the hints of the vocal that is heard after the main run is nicely effected. proper funky vibing.

buy here (junodownload)

marly - you never know (red carpet remix)

this was something that i knew of when i picked it up as it had been somewhat of a hit a few years and a mate of mine used to play it in his sets. the original was done by singer ditte-marie lyfeldt (aka marly) and the morten lambertsen & jacob johanssen (aka morjac). my mate loved "morjac's theme" and played a few of their tracks in their sets and the original versions of "you never know" was aurally similar.

for the single there was a quite a few remixes included for the original danish release by fellow danes filur and michael jensen (who made atleast three under diffrent names). it was licensed off to the uk on all around the world but also on a belgian label sugar sugar who both commissioned some versions. on the latter one is where patrick bruyndonx aka dén hetrix comes in with a red carpet remix.

it actually plays right into the type of sound that bruyndonx & raffaele brescia had done with their clubhit "alright", which itself is was like a piano houser much like kings of tomorrow's "finally" and layo & bushwacka!'s "love story" and a few others. bruyndonx  does a really classy job for the remix and keeps the piano hook but shifts the focus a bit on the track. the notion that there is live bass that was recorded for the track is a bit tucked away in morjac's housey versions but here it's given more emphasis. the vocals have been effected and weave together as a layer with the rest of the track.

as much as i like the original or morjac's house version i think bruyndonx outdid them with this stunning remix.

buy here (beatport)

dido - sand in my shoes (steve lawler's we love ibiza mix)

one of my favourites of 2004 was this one and it followed "stoned" with it's amazing deep dish remixes that i loved deeply. the lead single for dido's second album "life for rent" was "white flag", which i liked but yunno it wasn't a "here with me" or a "hunter". also in the equation was that the scumfrog's remix "white flag" left little to offer and usually i was all over scumfrog's remixes & productions at the time. it felt like a lesser version of the remix for iio's "at the end" which i love and i would play it over this.

basically those deep dish remix of "stoned" was my darlings and then the second or third single "sand in my shoes" came around and i loved the original version. along with it there was a whole slew of remixes were to offer from the likes of the dab hands, the beginerz, filterheadz, above & beyond, rollo & mark bates and of course steve lawler. safe to say that there wasn't a bad version in the package really and depending on what your poison was in the 124 to 136 bpm region, there was a specific cut for each own.

for me it was all about steve lawler's chunky house remix even though most of the trance heads like me geared towards above & beyond and filterheadz remixes. i know that i didn't properly hear the beginerz remix until several years later and chances are that it would have been my favourite had i just taken a closer listen. it would have grabbed me on the use of the bongo drums from the original and the acidline in the second half of the song.

what it didn't have though was a monster of a bassline that lawler and pete lorimer worked into their remix. it was love at first sight and the music really blew my mind... all jokes aside though i banged this out in so many sets that year and the following years but it also infuriated me. lawler probably made his remix for his residency at we love-music's events on infamous eivissan club space as it's referenced in the remix title (and a few other of his remix titles).

i did not have the pleasure of doing that as i played out from my bedroom and it was at a time i had no patience for lengthy breakdowns in my sets. however i still loved the tune and the chunky parts from the other side of the breakdown. the middle section stripped it down to eventually just dido's vocal and the acoustic guitar from the original. you hear a verse and the hook and for my own listening pleasure it was a delight with it and the especially whole full eleven and a half minutes.

that midsection is brilliant on a hot summer day in the balearic islands but i played for a limited number of people and i wanted to bang out the parts with that bassline. so i took a drastic decision of doing an edit where i cut out about a third of the song, including most of the vocals sans the first verse. to some extent i think it's stupid in retrospect as i do like the original song and i could have easily played the beginerz remix as it would have worked as well.

part of me thinks i really should have done that but i still feel my edited version went above the beginerz well done remix. because as much i love "sand in my shoes" steve lawler & pete lorimer's remix wasn't about that in my ears, it was about that bassline.

buy here (itunes)

also i know that because of it's length, it's album only and fuck knows does that infuriate me as well but i own the tune so i don't care that much.

sybil - when i'm good and ready (classic dub mix)

another case of a single found in the bargain bins and again picked up because i recognized a few names on it and knew of sybil. more as the vocalist on blaze's "when i fall in love" and a few other tracks but i found out that a prior career singing r&b was the case as well. the second name i recognized was jewels & stone who for this single do the big ten minute club mix. they also produced a nice remix of sophie ellis-bextor's "murder on the dancefloor" that i liked a lot.

the song comes in a few other mixes and they were mostly in-house productions and that was the normal modus operandi for stock, aitken & waterman/pwl international productions. but the nerd in me has point out that aitken didn't have anything to do with "when i'm good and ready". the other versions from the single came from pwl-associates dave ford and safe hands. ford did the vocal club mixes with the verses included and safe hands did the mixes that only kept the hooks.

my favourite version on the single comes from safe hands and it's their classic dub that is mix that i think were trying to appeal the "underground" dj's. the core foundation of the song was kept but the focus was shifted towards the groove and the vocal melody. it goes through a few different instrumentations and my heart leaps with joy as the vibraphone is audible. gathered together with the deep bassline, that plays according to the leadline, it's a very good interpretation of that new york-ish sounding garage that the brits were trying to do from time to time.

it is a shame though that just the title was used in terms of the vocal but i think with some modern tools that is easily solvable considering an acapella is available.

buy here (itunes)

zhané - shame

this was a find from one of my many trips of the multitudes of secondhand stores in stockholm. i had no clue about the song or the film it was the theme for. i am almost positive that i bought it because two of the remix titles said bump and the progressive house act sprung to my head. fact is that there was none of that and bump was just as a description, the music i found on this single was just r&b.

although "just r&b" is not really truthful as the disco roots of the song is conveyed with a boogie-esque production. however that is just what has been used as musically it is a bit different from evelyn "champagne" king's original. that doesn't really take from the brilliance of the cover and it really helps with the bassline being that good. i also love the way jean norris & renée neufville harmonize on the vocals as they are singing alternate lines of lyrics.

something tells me that this is the right type of song to get a revival from the neodisco crowd as it's fits perfect with what is normally played. it's also in the right temp and the extended club mix has enough mixability to work in sets. great stuff.

listen here (youtube)

stonebridge - put 'em high (axwell remix)

following previous entry it's therese grankvist and stonebridge again but this time the credit list is reversed as grankvist is the vocal feature for this track. stonebridge and grankvist formed a little bond as he also remixed therese's second single "i need somebody" and they collaborated a few times after this. the people behind "put 'em high" is also the same for "monkey" as klas b wahl, grankvist and guitarist george nakas are listed as writers along with sten hallström aka stonebridge.

as for "put 'em high" i think i either heard the song out in the clubs or on radio and i liked it quite a bit. it was stonebridge's hed kandi debut and the record really sounds like something from that label to put it very bluntly, but i wouldn't have said something like that then as i wasn't as much of a toolbag yet. i bought the cdsingle not long there after and at first i geared towards the original album version and jj's club mix as they featured the full vocal.

the single also included remixes by seamus haji, stockholm sound machine (more known as techno akt devilfish), axwell, angello & ingrosso. most would know the latter three as they are one of the biggest entities in dancemusic as of now. but this was ten years ago and stonebridge was the biggest name in the swedish house scene and they were up and coming.

i took a liking towards most of the remixes but in the end i've played seamus haji's remix and axwell's remix the most. the former stayed a bit faithful to the original but took it to a more summery late night approach, where as axwell went for pumping funky house. the music nerd in me must note that the version of haji's remix on my single had less use of the vocals.

axwell's remix took using just the hook and it set it to a groove that had quite of a bump to it as uses of cut up breakbeats and various distinct counter-rhythms. in fact it reminded me a lot of the aestethics of the roger sanchez' remix of wamdue project's "king of my castle", which i also really like. the beginning and the middle without the bassline and four on the floor in full blast makes for a nice transitioning tool into breaks or such. but it's not for just that purpose i work it but the meaty parts are downright funky and i like the playful arrangement. bumping.


buy here (junodownload)

therese - monkey (stonebridge remix)

discovered this song on swedish tvchannel ztv where the video was hauled as a future hit. i had heard about therese grankvist wanting to strike out on her own away from the drömhus project prior, but i didn't expect this sound at all. the video itself was a nice one featuring visuals of grankvist riding on trainrails and such but it wasn't for that i caught on to "monkey". if i remember correctly i bought the single about a few days after that, a few weeks later i saw the slimcase single and bought that which had the full length version.

it was that bassline and the video even featured stonebridge's remix, which sonically isn't different from the original it self. on a glance it's a case of stoney doing a tightening up on klas b wahls production, but i suspect that he was somehow a part in the making of the song. "monkey" has two distinct elements and the first one is the chunky bassline but the second one is a discoloop that is filtered in and out.

stonebridge does a better job at the filtering during the verses and the drum track feels thicker and cleaner. only thing is that he removed that small twangy guitar lick that appeared in the verses for the original but i can still live with that. especially considering how much i've played this track over the ten years since it's came out, both in sets but also just on it's own. eventually i also did strike up a big fondness over håkan lidbo's remix, which was the 'underground alternative' but because of it's sound i found it awkward to fit in in a mix.

listen here (youtube)

drömhus - vill ha dig (nello's 303 dub mix)

amongst the many reasons i still look for eurodance singles in bargain bins and second hand stores is remixes of the songs. most of the cases i am looking for that "underground" remix which basically means the version that sounds nothing like the original at hand. i've stated this fact a few times but sometimes i do love the song at hand but if i don't think much of it, the producer behind the remix has to be a favourite of mine.

for the case of this song i liked the project at hand which was ari lehtonen on production and therese grankvist on vocals and lyrics. the name itself is a swedish translation of the sound known as "dream house" which the first singles sort of used. i liked early singles like "du & jag", "i mina drömmar" and "ge upp", whose single houses the remix for "vill ha dig". however i did not like that song and i've never thought much of actual original, which is a cover of a 80's hit by swedish act free style. but when nello re-envisions this song, it's with a modus operandi that he used on quite a few of the remixes that was done that year.

nello tijardovic, who passed away in 2001, was starting to become a prolific producer in the swedish scene and worked closely with pierre jerksten amongst others. both of them used the trick of say the german trance scene (in particular derichs & romboy's alphabet city label) to stay afloat, it is also something that also can hurt you in terms of credibility. basically producing some really commercial records that schlock radio would love and then on ths same release do the versions that they actually would play out in the club.

how the remixes from nello's side goes in a manner of to have the song start and end with the chorus like bookends. at the start it plays once or twice to establish what the song is and in the end it's a minute or two with the hook repeating. the sound also changes a bit to whatever the song at hand originally sounds like. what is interesting though is the middle part and for most cases, with this remix included, there is a furious acidy workout on the commercial end.

words cannot describe how much i love this part and it also has to do that it also employs a chordprogression and hook that was also used in tina cousins' "killin' time". it's more blatant in the other two remixes of "vill ha dig" and especially ari lehtonen's own remix that he did as la cream (another eurodance project of his which nello also did remixes of in this fashion). this segment isn't clever at all but it puts all the focus on the sound of silverbox, which tijardovic was a avid user of and i of course is a big fan of.

the squelching acid sound for this one is used both as a bassline and second instance where it goes into more higher frequencies. it's very much a big drive and go to all of it but that has to do with the rest of the track with driving 16th note hihats, snarerolls and all that jazz. the bassline also that 16th note machinegun type punch that is more known in goa or psytrance, which of course nello produced on the side.

i've used this track and a few of the other acidy nello remixes in many trancy sets but i always tend to mix out before the end section. with quick mixing and track selection it works like a charm every time.

buy here (itunes)

qk - valencia (booiamrudolf remix)

i found about david uribe aka dsum's monofonicos netlabel through a mate and back then i just grabbed a few select tracks and  that worked in my sets. what i was playing at the time was a lot of deep house where as he played techno on the deeper scale which sorted blended together sonically. but i was still looking atmosphere and groove so i geared for some of the same tracks but i wasn't looking for certain of the other output on the label.

for sergio escobar aka qk's ep "415" i had listened to the track before and i was into "folsom" and the giggs remix of "geary". "valencia" and especially the remix by booiamrudolf was looked past and i understand why, but still not as i was playing sunday brunch tracks that sounded like this. none the less they became the top priority as i grabbed them again about a year ago after my harddrive failed on me.

"valencia" in it's original state is a deep funky broken beat number that later shifts into four on the floor about a third into the track. rodolfo alzate aka booiamrudolf take out a bit of the laidback feel and emphasises the drums and bassline. most of escobar's melodic elements are reduced and azalte only keeps the pads and floaty leadline.

azalte does a quite nice job at tweaking that for a climatic phase in the second half of the track and in general "valencia" is turned into into a bumping club track. the bassline is a driving ordeal even in the broken rhythms that form the track. i quite like how the filters are let loose of it as the leadline is going through a bitcrushing automation. in a breif solo moment there is the first audible signs that the sound of it is an upright bass, always a favourite element of mine. stunning.

download here (archive.org)

also recommend his album from last year which he released own his own bandcamp.

duvchi - whole life tour

"whole life tour" was something i heard on national radio and i didn't catch it's brilliance until the third or fourth listen. i knew of jens duvsjö aka duvchi's previous single "turtledoves" and quite liked it but it was a quite some time between those two singles. when i caught on to the song it was an amazement of the sound and the use of effects, into almost the extreme.


some words and references come to mind when i hear it as i don't even know how to pigeon-hole this one. it blatantly lifts ideas from the recent chillwave and glo-fi movement. however you can also easily point to shoegaze and modern psychedelic rock and pop music. for me it's a case of hearing it to an extent where i wonder how it sounds completely stripped of effects.

even looked on youtube to see if an early version existed but only found duvsjö performing it as it is back in late 2011, so i guess this song was to be released closer to "turtledoves" but something got in the way. none the less the song has two distinct parts and the latter would be the last minute which is completely instrumental. but it also loosens up the use of filters and effects sounds are heard more prominently but the mood also switches a bit for the cheerier.

duvchi's vocal delivery reflects well on the kind of backing you hear with a rhythm that is phased slowly.
the song it self is about wanting to escape the normal day life and you can hear well it uses the mood changes between verse and chorus. during the verses it's sort of staccato and there is heavy use of rhyming to an extent that i hear him rapping but it's on the poetic side. basically it's spoken word type flow but the choruses are sung with great romantic emphasis, in that modern gentle indie-r&b type way.

there is also a picked guitar and the bottom end a bassline that is rumbling away. the use of pads is remarkable as big use of reverbs almost makes for a airy cloud of sound surrounding everything. listening closer you can hear how the pads are integrated into everything along with these long sweeping strings that are used for accents.

when duvsjö starts the transition into the second part of the song it is started with the pads and reverb that somehow starts to pushing forward. it is almost as it's going to end on a highnote when a small interlude of reverbed pianos comes in, and it could also be the closer. but it pushes into a interesting part where the volume of the music is increased as the aural clarity is refined. part of me wishes it would go on for a bit longer but i also like it at this length.

buy here (itunes)

boogie pimps - somebody to love (raymond barry remix)

bought the cd-single of "somebody to love" at the time of it's release and it was in 'legendary' recordstore pitch, here in stockholm. they used to have a lot of imports and for some reason most of the ministry of sound material was australian. infact they had a whole lot of australian imports and i think it's because they used to get as much good material on a single. the australians along with the japanese but most already know about the size of them, but i do recommend dancenet singles for classic stuff.

this was a track i knew of sort of and i liked the original and the moonbotica remix but i liked it for the groove and the "fear and loathing in las vegas"-speech. the jefferson airplane sample was a bit to overused in most of the version, including the moonbotica remix that had some great acid. the australian single used some most of the remixes commissioned by ministry of sound themselves and this meant leaving out moonboticas remix.

most of the new versions left out the speech for obvious reasons as ministry of sound was pushing this single to a wide commercial market. i think i even read some review from some american dj & journalist on this single and it said something that some dj's were hesistant to play it because of the speech, which is bullshit but understandable to a certain degree.

henceforth the removal of the speech annoyed me a bit but i did really like santos' versions, dj flex & sandy wilhelm's was a bit annoying though. also it did copy the idea & bassline of daft punk's "burning", as did junior jack for "thrill me" but in a different way, but i felt that you might as well play "burning" instead of this inferior version. as far as i know raymond barry's version is the only kept it and they also took to a direction of the track that i loved.

basically it is an update on the original but with a more driving bassline and it puts all the focus on the build and groove. when it drops in the middle of the song it's for the speech and the jefferson airplane sample is used to a minimal extent and it's all treated with filters and looping. safe to say a very well made remix that i've cained heavily over the years.

for years i thought raymond barry was just some random producer as when i first read information on discogs, there was little info and only one single released. it wasn't until a few years later that i found out that it was a team of producers behind this one. they were davide & alessandro piatto, claudio rossi and gerhard potuznik, all of which who have a fair load of quality records under their belt. even a classic or two but you can dig into discogs for them.

valerie etienne - misunderstanding (roger's r-senal mix)

another one of my purchases when from the time i used to trawl for any single that looked interesting and had remixes. "misunderstanding" was released during the unfortunate time when the uk had a limit to 20minutes on singles and henceforth there was the two parter system. the original was done in collaboration with ski oakenfull and he also provides a remix but that's only on vinyl.

for cd you had two excellent versions by mj cole and roger sanchez, the former did a 2-step mix for the vocal version and a rougher 4x4 take for the dub. sanchez went for soulful house and only difference between his two mixes is the less use of vocals. i found the second single in the pack first and that included roger's main mix and mj cole's dub and they've served me well over the years.

the original was never put on any of the cd-singles but i have heard it and i quite like it but i'll take roger's classy house version over it any day. very good use of the guitar from the original and i really love that bassline and the live feel of it. it's the key word about this one as most of the elements feels natural to a certain extent and while it's not completely body & soul, it does have that appeal. proper.


buy here (itunes)

the roc project - never (max reich remix)

"never" was a huge club hit when i bought the cdsingle and think i hadn't heard the original but i was quite into the remixes by both dj tiësto and filterheadz. both of which were included along with a remix by jean-claude ades and max reich, along with the original and radio edit. after my infatuation died down a bit with those two versions my focus went more for the max reich remix.

it also had to do with filterheadz remix being basically their previous production "sunshine" (done with tomaz), in a slightly different suit and you might as well play that instead. might as well add that it's not the first time i mention this but anyone knowledgable to filterheadz productions at the time know about it. a popular trick with dj's at time was to play this remix or the dub version and go into "sunshine"

none the less if you are going to get really nerdy to things, i found it weird that some of the titles were a bit different. the original and max reich remix had a secondary title, being "past tense", tagged on in brackets. when i looked in the credits i noticed it was because "never" uses a sample from fused's "twisted". fused was a project by my countrymen max reich, samuel malm together with vocalist petra hallberg.

this part is discogs info because i can honestly say that prior to hearing "never" i had never heard of fused or the song that was sampled. my head knew about both producers prior and their prior output was more in the techno region but both had done some acidy trance as well. from what i gather then fused stemmed from an initial one-off housey single as "selected works" in '97 for mousse t's peppermint jam label.

eventually it became a full length album but now with a new project name and album called "selected works". after a few other singles they struck a deal with columbia and this in hand led to a release of singles "saving mary", "twisted" and "terror". i heard that the project sort of disbanded after that and i believe malm went into more engineering work and reich started up shapeshifters.

for reich's remix of the song he went into a tougher and more progressive direction, a very driving track straight from the top when the bassline sets the tone for the rest. it's always interesting when someone that has been sampled are invited or wants to do a re-envisioning like this, especially on how they choose to tackle the remix and what sounds are used.

traces of reich's past productions are a visible and i think it's because of the way the focus comes on the subtle acid sound and the lowkey melodies on top of this driving rhythm. the vocal isn't the focal point of the track even though it's quite prominent throughout the track. it's very well done and i like how the track is built as it easily fits a driving house set but lends to transitioning into progressive house and to some extent a trancy or set. good stuff.


buy here (itunes)

rachael starr - till there was you (john creamer & stephane k remix)

another case of something that i heard upon it's release but first it was through gabriel & dresden's remix and i didn't like that but i liked the song in general. i heard starr's original version closely after that and preferred it but when i heard about john creamer & stephane k's remix, there was no turning back. gabriel & dresden took a big risk with their remix but and there is a bit of a circuit flirt in the sound but i really think they missed the point of the song.

starr's vocal delivery which is bit dry but there is a subtle moodyness to it, even if the lyrics are supposed to be romantic in some way. the match up with gabriel & dresden's beats didn't work and i think starr played up the funky house aspect a bit too much. creamer & k does it very subtle and lets the small motif of the pads and the bassline do the work for most part. by doing this they harnessed the best parts of the original and let them be the focal points.

i was entrance by that bassline and it's interesting how they redid it where in starr's hands it was a warped murmur. when they took to it the sound is in line with the pad motif, to an extent that it becomes another layer to it. something that is now very much associated with booka shade's "mandarine girl" but this goes a bit deeper than that. because of this and the fact that it utilized a bit of a scaled down production is why most of the time i played this track i used to pitch it down. "till there was you" worked excellently with deeper house and slowing it down also increased the moody nature of the vocal but also the song at hand. brilliant.


buy here (beatport)

hugg & pepp - meral

with my recollection i bought the "naken janne" ep in '05 and i already knew of "janne", which more or less is the titletrack, as this was a track played everywhere at the time. it was definitely around the time people outside of the techno & house scene started looking at jesper dahlbäcks productions because of the rework of "murder of the bass". i bring that up as "janne" has an vicious bassline and part of it's charm is that it sounds like the cross between a hoover and a reese at times.

as i actually listened to the other tracks on the record, i was sort of into them but nothing hit as hard as "janne" at the time. not going to lie but at time i was still coming to the notion that techno didn't just mean drumcode type records. i liked some other techno but i was favouring the fast and pounding sound. "janne" fit sort of into that when pitched up but i also learned that i had to play this music differently.

there was one track that sort of grabbed my mind at the time and remember it vividly hearing "meral" and being a bit into as i started getting back into those persuader records. i know that hugg & pepp is in collaboration with his cousin john but anything that jesper dahlbäck does, that sounds remotely like his persuader records will probably get support from me. even if it's almost 10 years after it's release but i do know why i didn't play it back then. my toes had just been dipped into playing deeper house and even then my notion of deep house was the really atmospheric kind.

none the less i want to still talk about this one and it is the bassline and the pads that makes "meral" the brilliant tune that it is. the dahlbäcks build up a steady groove with a distinct closing hihat with each clap and some funky congas. the bass comes teasing in after a little while and it squelches a bit to an extent that sounds like farts but it works with the track. the warm pads used in a few of dahlbäck's previous productions come in for a little time when they are later replaced with a more perky patch.

further on in the track the bass also gets to shine with a solomoment of sorts and along with it there are some beat edits. while all of this is happening there is a moody but sombre pad in the background and while it's just playing longer chords it really does it's job with the ambience. great track and for that extent great ep in general, there isn't a bad track on this release and i can fit all of the songs in a set any day.

it helps sometimes to look in your recordcollection and see if you have forgotten some gems, this was definitely one of those.



also the nerdy/popcultural part of me has to point out that all of the tracks which are "janne", "meral", "robban", "linda" are named after people who took part of various reality shows in the early noughties. all of them gained notoriety in one way or another and janne for instance was kalled "naken janne" ("naked janne") for his nudist ways.

vivian green - emotional rollercoaster (original 3 extended)

"emotional rollercoaster" was something i heard in a set and it was originally through a remix by above & beyond and it's a version that i still love. typical classy driving epic trance production with green's vocal on top and it was also nice to hear soulful vocals like that with trancier beats. because normally on a regular basis, the most soulful you could get was marcella woods, merle forbes and kate cameron and they was stuck to singing e-tard poetry for the most part.

i missed out on actual buying the record at the time but saw the cdsingle a while after and bought it, knowing that it wasn't included. the additional versions included was by junior vasquez, that kid chris and original 3 together with a b-side called "music", also available on her album "a love story". junior vasquez remix was a classic circuit rerub and i liked it to an extent but i could never play it because it had certain parts that i didn't like, note that this was before i took to editing tracks .

that kid chris took to a tribal progressive house version that bored me tears on the first listen and while i see it's purpose with these ears, i'd never play it. saving the original 3 remix for last and this was always the remix i chose to play because it harnessed the original production, which i loved. for some reason i also thought that it was by osunlade as he, erro & vivian green were responsible for the song. it also didn't help that discogs never included a remixcredit for the act "original 3" at the time, or maybe that i had never heard of them prior to looking it up today.

none the less, it's a great soulful house track that uses osunlade's bassline and synth licks with green's vocal as i hinted upon in the prior paragraph. i also like the guitar being used that isn't that prominent but audible enough and the way it fits the soundscape. the most notable is that it implements the bridge that most of the remixers that took a stab at this song ignored.

it's part of the motion of the original composition but in original 3's remix it's in the breakdown and becomes a great crowning moment for green as she just belts out the hook right after it. as it's set up is a classic trick with diva house type tracks and it works equally as brilliant with this one. love it.

sonique - sky (sonique remix)

another one of my early record puchases and this was from a music and video exchange of sorts in stockholm, i saw the record there along with a few other and decided to get it. i knew of the original version quite vividly as it was quite a big hit one or two years prior but hadn't heard the remixes on the record. to be honest i thought "it feels so good" was better than "sky" but i didn't have that single either until much later.

upon getting it i did have a clue on what i would expect with these ones and i thought both remixes would be full on club mixes. such is the case with the b-side that is the conductor & the cowboy remix, which is the version i have played the most as i've found places for it in sets. it's right proper driving epic trance and that isn't a secret that i am fond of that or like to play that.

the a-side however which is sonique's own rework expands on the original but shifts the focus out of the big room. to these ears it's the kind of tune that would work well in sets with club music but not meant for dancing, just to please the ears. however i do hear how it can be used and also notice the elements that could aid if the track was pitched up a bit.

in general most elements of the song was redone and the prominent stabbing synth melodies and string arrangement is replaced with softer pads, lowkey keys and a guitar. the drums and the bassline have also gone through a switch and they feel more in tune with rest of the sounds. the bassline in particular is more accentuated and whenever that squelching long note makes it's presence, you feel it's presence. on top, or should i say in the middle with the rest of this glorious soundscape, sonique's warm vocal feels right at home. very nice.

buy here (itunes)

lillian - magic moments (bart van wissen remix)

this was something i bought a few years ago because i really liked the original version of "magic moments" but when i took it home the remix became the choice version. part of why i liked the song in the first place as it had nice progressive trancy vibe to it with a melancholic vocal. andain's "summer calling" really came into mind on the initial listens but not completely.

"magic moment" was one the many collaborations between lillian van sonsbeek and dennis buné (aka jaimy) & kenneth doekhie (aka kenny d) and most of them sat in that grayarea between funky house, progressive house and progressive trance. but on most of the occasions they shifted toward the moodier than the quite funky vocal tunes like "caught me running" for example.

i have no idea on how both parts connected because prior to working with buné & doekhie, sonsbeek was the vocalist for happy hardcore project 4 tune fairytales. but i guess as that ended sonsbeek moved on to voicing different sounds and that is what happened in 2000. discogs doesn't really tell which is the start of their collaborations but it could be night sessions' "i wander" or jaimy & kenny d's "shine on" or "don't know your name" ep.

none the less it was quite a thriving connection and they pulled out a number of great tracks and this is one of them. for bart van wissen's remix he took the track into a different sound than the latent trancier sounds and from the get go, it is quite funky. vibrant drums and shuffled percussion set the stage but as soon you hear the you hear the pads sweeping in, a whole different feel is brought on. even with a bassline that is brought on which is equally funky as the percussion, you feel this "laidback" notion for a lack of better terms.

with the vocal the mood is emphasised even more but i took a big liking to this remix not just because of that. i saw the possibilities in a set where it's an excellent transition piece. the funky rhythm is excellent for keeping the groove going but if you want to take it down or go into a different direction it will fit the role. great stuff.

buy here (junodownload)

slip 'n' slide - let me know

"let me know" was something i heard originally on youtube many years ago and back then it was mislabeled as an aphrodite tune. not that hard to understand why since it bears resemblance to his productions during the late 90's, even if this is a bit toned down compared to them. the aaliyah sample was the hook for my liking but i also took a liking towards the breakdown part of the song.

usually i would start talking about the artists at hand but i have no clue on who sean warfield aka dj slip or tej singh aka slide are, you know beyond discogs information. but from that i gather that they were part of a click of canadian drum & bass producers more known as vinyl syndicate, circled around a shop and label with the same name. sometimes the nerdy nature of me kicks in to dig deeper but in this care there is little care to be found beyond my deep liking towards this track.

what i can tell you is that this did trigger the part of my musical taste that likes jump-up drum & bass even though the elitist part of me want so ignore that. as mentioned in my entry of jamie myerson's "everything's gonna be alright" i stand for everything i like. all those inane urban takedown productions like "bad ass", the remix of "jungle brother" and the "rockafella skank" remix, i would go nuts on a dancefloor if someone played them.

this track is golden right from the start with those "n.t." drums and those soft keys and the aaliyah vocal samples worked in a loop. when the full hook is unleashed it's a few bars until they kick the bassline in and you hear her vocal melody being reiterated in the lower end. as the track progresses eventually a few elements creep in and subtly you hear a "think break".

it then makes it's appearence in full when the song goes into a halftime moment with the "think"-break is slowed down a few bars. it then heads into a really distorted bass part of the tension and release of the song. that segment doesn't stay in that long as it heads into a break of sorts where another familiar sound is heard.

a looped part from the intro of souls of mischeaf's classic "'93 'til infinity" becomes the basis of the breakdown along with alex reece's "pulp fiction" drums. the progression out of it also flows perfectly and i like the continued use of the "'93 'til infinity" loop right up where they go back into the distorted bass for one final bass blast. great track.

listen here (soundcloud)

keoki - majick (yum yum remix)

with most of my musical purchases over the years i have no real distinctive memory other than as i bought it. this falls into the exception as i remember the transaction quite vividly and it comes back as a memory whenever an event like this happens again. i believe this took place in 2006 or 2007 and a few days prior to this event i was in the recordstore at hand. i found the cdsingle for keoki's "majick" as i went in there just on a whim because it was on my route to my usual recordstore.

for the time at hand i didn't have more money at my disposal so i left it there but hidden in a special place so i would go back another time and grab it. sometimes when i'm digging at recordstores i'm quite of an anorak and really not interested in talking to anyone as i'm trying to remember stuff. remember this was before having cheap internet access on your phone and having discogs at your disposal.

as i entered the store, i did actually greet the proprietor of the store in swedish and then i went down to business and started looking. i picked this up along with the cdsingle of the '96 rerelease of the future sound of london's classic "papua new guinea" and some other item. the clerk then starts talking to me in broken english and i just stood there frozen and wondered: "hey, i greeted you in clear swedish about five minutes ago, why are you speaking english to me now?"

sometimes i've haven't cared about the incident but for other times this has happened, i have replied with a witty response in swedish. i understand that sometimes it is a case of tourists walking in and doing the shopping. however seeing as i'm of syriac origin and look the part with black hair, brown eyes and a big nose i am going to cite stereotypes as they have spoken to me in english.

never the less i did take this home and still think about that incident time to time again as i listen to it, also think about how dated certain sounds can be. i knew about the latter thing but i was expecting more than one mix to be playable (without editing that is). the original has it's moments but keoki's vocals ruin the fun electro vibe of it. yum yum's remix is a textbook example of proper driving trance music on the epic edge, even the breakdown with it's telltale sounds of it's time works well.

when i found the single at hand i had a hunch that it was to be the lasting tune of the pack and i wasn't wrong. love the subtle acidlines, the small melody parts and the driving bassline. even keoki's vocals work as yum yum only used the whispered parts. i've certainly had use of this in my sets over the years and i still think it's proper. right on.

buy here (junodownload)

martina topley-bird - hours away

i saw this single a few years back and it wasn't really the type of cdsingle i would buy, even though i knew damn well who martina topley-bird was. she has a great voice and i like quite a lot of the music that she's outputted but frankly when i looking into bins after singles, i do want to have a number of remixes on it. "need one" is a three tracker with the main track at hand, a single specific b-side and a remix.

fabien waltham's name wasn't known for me until i remembered that he had a remix under his belt of madonna's "the power of good-bye" that was brilliant. it was drum & bass and even though i saw his name along with topley-bird on the credit list of production of the original track, i was still expecting drum & bass. sadly this was not the case but it was a great version where the track has been grittied up.

but i am a sucker for a good bassline and some dreamy atmosphere, basically anything shoegazy without taking it to wanky territories. "hours away" is a great song and the vocal arrangement and the reverbed out sounds has been enjoyed from my side. sometimes taking a gamble on a single pays off even it's not what you expected.

listen here (youtube)

ng3 - tell me (club mix)

another example of a track that i liked from hearing it on radio or on telly back in '02 and i know it was because of three reasons. first of all because the video was quite good, even though the idea was sort reminiscent of a sugababes video and especially the video for puretone's "addicted to bass". secondly because of herbie crichlow was affiliated with the song and also produced the song (along with partner in crime ari lehtonen who used the moniker eric le tennen on this project).

thirdly and most imporantly is that it was quite a catchy track and had alot of attitude with but it went without saying as the combination crichlow & lehtinen was quite the hitmakers, on the more commercial eurodance-leaning edge. they formed a production group called dreamstate and ng3 was part of their stable. sound wise ng3 was somewhat based in hiphop and r&b but with beats that sounded more like eurodance and trance at 95bpm. strangely though it doesn't actually sound like the late '00 style of hiphop and r&b with that exact formula as this was too polished.

for example the original actually uses the kind of soca or dancehall type swing and tempo but there is a more specific hiphop-oriented remix done as dreamstate. here it's at half the tempo, most of the elements have been stripped down and it's just drums, bass, vocals and then a big epic synthy hook. even at this rendition it doesn't really sound like those records from the later era but i never cared for those tracks and neither this remix either.

i was always geared towards the two house remixes on the cdsingle and german act silverboys and swedish producer jonas hagman. the former does a great filtertastic funky house mix but i had problems with this version because i think they handled the vocal poorly and it can't even be salvaged with editing. hagman's versions are just billed as club mix and dub mix respectively and i think i still don't know why, just going by the sound of the remixes.

they have little to no relation musically beyond the use of the vocals but i loved them on the first listen. hagman's remixes is driven by this catchy tom-loop and a very fake acidline that does everything right. it creates a whole load of tension and never really releases it a typical circuit type way because this remix is very in tuned with the american circuit sound of the 90's. difference being that it doesn't go to the epic extent that you got in those anthemic tracks and remixes. i do love this version but when i had the problems of fitting this into the sets i was playing so it became a personal pleasure. utterly banging though.

soul II soul - move me no mountain (dum dum dub)

first time i heard this was through ron trent and his appearance on amoeba records' what's in my bag. he picked the record at hand and trent talked about buying it for joey negro aka dave lee's remixes. suitably the good folks at amoeba record decided to play one of the remixes and they chose the dub over the main club mix. the difference between them are the latter plays very straight and "houses" up the original where as dave lee went for his on the dub.

apart from some key sounds, one line of vocal and the bassline this track is all dave lee. i got hooked to it through the vibraphone-sounding hook that was heard right off the bat in the amoeba video. when i heard it on headphones i however realised that the real star of the track is the bassline. even with a stunning musical base with great drums & percussion and nice keys, it's the bassline that matters.

from the start you hear it about a minute in when it's all stripped down to a heavy tr-808 kick after a luscious building intro. the round murmur moves through the bottom end and after a while it's even backed up with some played bass. however the key moment was when i heard the track in my headphones a few days ago and it just reached the breakdown.

there it goes from murmuring to booming as lee just cranks it up a few notches and lets the bassline loose and every little movement sounds grandiose. i fell in love with the track at that point and i had even played the track in a set a few times. sometimes you really feel the impact when you are one with the music and the outside world isn't bothering you.

listen here (youtube)

humate - breed (summer of '89 remix)

for this one i was given a heads up when it was released and even then people said that don't bother with the original, head straight for the acidy summer of '89 remix. the part about it including a whole load of acid almost sealed the deal for me but it having a sort of a late 80's housey throwback sound also meant a lot. especially as i was quite into the hugg & pepp remix of "in and out". which basically did the same thing but was more balls deep into the nostalgic factor, to put it bluntly.

the original isn't by any means a bad track and infact listening to it now i can hear it's appeal and the way the distorted techno house sound worked well with the vocal. it was sort of a mix between the humate's own gee shock remix of his '00 single "choose life" and "vivid", the prior humate single. i still favour the summer of '89 remix of it over the original and part of why it works is that doesn't sound like a complete throwback track.

when this track was released i tried to used words like chicago and sound of trax or dj international and the likes when i was describing this track. on one occasion i was given a swift reprimand from my friend alon klein in that this doesn't sound like chicago at all and if anything it's more mancunian. even then it's done through another filter of modern aestethics and production techniques that throws the argument of "chicago" or manchester out of the window.

i do however associate it with summer and not because it says so in the title but because it was included into my soundtrack of the summers of '05 and '06. that acidy bassline and groove was such a delight to listen to on warm summer days and you felt every motion of the phasing effects that was used. i loved those warm pads that compilemented the acid wiggle and the lethargic vocal.

after every start of the listen i did wait for the moment where the resonance of the acid increased as it was going into this small breakdown. after the that small drop there is a section where the it all goes haywire in all the right ways. the percussion sounds more wilder, the vocal is chopped up and the resonance of the acid is increased even more.

to be fair this follows suit of the original which is also built in a similar way but the difference is the execution and the sound. instead of wibbly acid you hear distorted sounds, affected to lfo, wobbling around. then when it's had that moment it goes back into the groove that you heard in the first half of the track until it fades down and ends. lovely track.

buy here (junodownload)

lucca - towers

my introduction to lucie kvasnicová aka dj lucca came through paul van dyk as the umek remix of "mirage" was heavily cained. soon after heard chris cowie's remix and preferred it to that but i quite liked the works coming from this czech dj & producer. it was a mix of funky techno and quite popular big room sound and also the not quite trance but not quite techno sound. in the beginning it did sound a bit like cowie's brand of techno as they collaborated on a few records but the sound was changed further on and i started to lose interest in the music.

not because it stopped sounding like chris cowie but it started to go into the direction of say deadmau5 and "8th note tech-house" and the "trendhouse" of the mid and late noughties. needless to say i was never a fan of that sound and spent way to much time trying to knock some sense into people using the world electro in the wrong context. after a while, i want to say that i stopped caring about the loss of the descriptions of that genre, but if you've read my blog prior you would know that is bullshit. i still yammer on about what real such and such genre is even though it's isn't as didactic like in this entry.

regardless of that i do try to focus my protest by focusing on good music by the persons at hand and i have a few favourites by lucca. "mirage" i've already mentioned but also "t-gnosia", "manila" and this track "towers". came out on kvasnicová's own sound of acapulco label and is a stunning driving funky techno groove. it's great set buildup material and constructed with it's the layer upon layer technique.

starts with a muddy bassline, a kick and a faint percussion loop and it goes on from there. it does use quite livid percussive elements that does what bring to mind that latin loop techno sound of the early 00's but the focus is shifted to the bassline and the groove. as the bassline gets more defined with additional layers, the track also seem to set the direction that it's not up top where the action is.

there isn't a missed point in this track in where the small drops makes sense. the two bigger breaks builds the right amount of tension and gives out some release even though it continues building on. great stuff.

buy here (junodownload)

nekta - history is pearshaped (swell session's vip mix)

i came across this one through swell session/andreas saag's myspace back in the day where he had some microsite constructed on his space where it was built like a jukebox. some of the tracks had a lot of descriptions and the likes on his productions and it was fun reading the information and factoids and all that jazz. being that my mind cling on to this kind of useless knowledge and knowing how to search for it otherwise is what built this blog more or less.

none the less the factoid for this remix is that saag was asked by infracom! to remix either this song by nekta or jhelisa's "freedom's land" and in the end, both was given a remix treatment. saag took a liking to the original and set out to do a housey version of track that was quite jazzy but had a strong balearic groove. the other interesting information was that saag was also given some additional vocals from nathalie schäfer that was recorded on request.

they can be heard on the tail end on the song where you can hear schäfer adlibbing and harmonising a bit to the rhythm. luckily with the internet archive i was able to retrieve all this information again, i may remember some things but i had it mixed up with the info about another remix done by andreas saag. with regards to this remix i really loved the summery tone to the song and that really thick and round bassline.

saag implemented most of the sounds from the original as he loved it redid the drum track and added a different bump to it. the guitar and strings have been worked into the mix but the jazzy trumpet has been removed. the keyboards was also redone in saag's own style as he knows his way around the keys and likes to work in the played element of the keyboards.

one thing though is that i've noticed and especially looking on soundcloud and blogs over the last couple of years is that these kind of specific house remixes aren't as favoured if there is something more balearic. i really think in a modern context people would go for the original than the remix. it's slower and need for that 125bpm type bump isn't as needed as it used to be, or i'm maybe just talking out of my arse on this thing.

what stifles the original is that it doesn't have the mixability like the saag's remix but you could easily fix that with some looping. for me though? i prefer this remix over the original as i think it's better and has more ideas cleverly executed and such.

buy here (junodownload)

santos - gimme da mike (electrochemie lk remix)

this comes off the single for santos' "i'm not homesick" which has "gimme da mike" as a b-side. there was a few other remixes ordered up the for the single by lee coombes and genius cru but they appear elsewhere, besides i'll take thomas schumacher's elektrochemie lk remix over them any day. also featured on the track is rapper everest who also appeared on dino lenny's "i feel stereo" from the same time. there you could hear him redo melle mel's famous lines from the guestverse of chaka khan's "i feel for you".

santos' works this glitchy offbeat loop throughout the song and the effect is a bumpy rhythm and it's quite funky when a four on the floor is strapped on together with a bassline. for schumacher however it's a case of focusing on that off beat rhythm and working a broken beat rhythm according to the swing of that groove. it's also coupled together with shuffled percussion that on a glance just sounds frantic, but this why i feel in love with this version.

in most respects organized chaos, especially when locked down to the same tempo, is much more fun that just the occacional crazy section. it does have to be interesting throughout and schumacher sorts this out with fills and some changes but also a great bassline that squelches in all of the right moments. downright proper.

pauline kamusewu - runnin' out of gaz (markus enochson's bang-the-galore mix)

with this one i bought swedish singer pauline kamusewu's second single "answer" more or less because i was interested in markus enochson's remix of "runnin' out of gaz". i had heard both songs prior but i didn't like "answer" that much or at least compared to the previous single. both of them were early motown/'60s pop-pastiches in the fullest rights with snares on each beat and a big horn arrangement.

markus enochon's take on "runnin' out of gaz" interested me mostly because as mentioned before that i liked the song but i was also a big fan of his works in general. on this one enochson gets down to business fast works a sturdy rhythm and less than a minute in you hear kamusewu's vocal and the bassline from the original.

along with it there is some keys that plays long chords or rhythm work during the verses but goes into some tiny extravagances a bit into the song. fact is that most of the elements from the original appear in enochson's remix but it's just translated into a different genre and that it's all toned down a bit. in general an incredibly well made remix and you get that masters at work-ish vibe that enochson used to work in his soulful house days.

buy here (itunes)

slow train soul - trail of dawn

first time i heard about slow train soul was through "naturally" which i heard on some lounge compilation and i liked it quite a bit. the act consists of morten hansen aka varano which i'm a big fan of and michelle nichol aka lady z whom i've never heard of prior to hearing the song. a few months after hearing the compilation i saw the cdsingles for "naturally" and "in the black of the night" in one of stockholms record stores and i grabbed them both.

i thought it was fitting as both used the same artwork but stylised differently as it was based of a photo of the act where it's been reduced to contours.  "naturally" uses a white background and black contours and "in the black of the night" has it vice versa, probably with the song title in mind. in terms of the title tracks i'll take "naturally" over the latter but "in the the black of the night" also came with a mighty b-side which i fell in love with on the first listen.

"trail of dawn", which is also included on the album called "illegal cargo", is an ode to clubbing and tells the feeling of the end of a really good night. it quite an epic and goes through some emotions and stages and i really like how it starts almost melancholic with these gorgeous but sad strings. this feeling changes a bit as the drums and a really resonant bassline appears in the picture and it sets the stage for lady z's vocals.

nichols also feels a bit melancholic in her delivery but her words aren't of sadness but more joyous and the words are about all the fun that the night of dancing has brought. this juxtaposition is interesting and it's emphasised as the phrase "now that the music's over, turn on the bright white light" becomes a mantra of sorts after the verses are finished. somewhere in the back of the mind of clubbers everywhere you never want a really good night out to end.

all of these emotion are given a brilliant soundtracking to by varano and lady z (and guests fred portelli & vezio bacci) which provides ups and downs with strings, lovely drums & percussion and a bassline that hits hard.

buy here (itunes)

boxsaga - robot blues

some years ago i found the cdsingle for boxsaga's "positive sweat" and i don't remember on what strength i picked it up. probably because it was a four tracker ep and at the time i was quite into the concept of those releases, if it was specific songs for that release. also because the track duration was printed on the cardboard cover and out of the four track, the shortest track clocked in at 5:35 and that is the title track.

on the other end of that "robot blues" is the longest track of the release and it's also fastest and it seems a bit out of place compared to the other tracks. like the rest of the track it employs some of the buzzing saws and the warm synth sounds along with the use of drumbreaks and generated drum sounds. but the structure of the track and the tempo is different and you feel that nick phillips aka boxsaga just threw the rules out of the window for this track.

the buildup for it is one of those just goes to the extremities without ever launching into that moment or a drop. you hear it go on and there are even a few key breaks where it's expected for things to happen but you'll be hard pressed to hear it. the most substantial thing that happens during the break four minutes into the song is that the it changes from breakbeats to four on a floor. almost the same scenario happens six minutes in where it breakdown a bit, probably for mixing purposes.

regardless of stucture, it's an amazing rollercoaster of a track and it it much to the dj at hand how to use it. the logical thing is to have it as an ender as sounds like one but it can also be used as intro if you follow it up with something equally pacey and on the go. midset will be trickier but here the with good use the breaks well and you will have a quality transition tool. for me i like it most as a whole entity but i've used it mostly as an intro.

xzique - outside looking in (down)

hidden behind the name xzique is one of many projects of antonia lucas, davin snell & kevin swain and their collective history goes back to the mid 90's. i actually thought of doing a short summary of their artist history respectivly but it wouldn't be concise at all, more like essay-length. out of character for someone like me i will not do that for this time, you will have to do your discogs lurking yourself.

i remember hearing this one first on steve lawler's outing on global undergrounds mixseries nubreed where lawler played the more stripped down and less vocal sub project remix. i was quite into that and thought it was the original mix until i got my hands on the single and found out that something was off in the titling. the chances are that labels got mixed up and since this happens in dance music it's just a case of having that in mind.

the track at hand is a driving progressive house cut with tribal undertones and it really goes for that dark feel with sweeping pads and sounds. while it is a capital try and it what a lot of progressive house was trying to do in the early noughties, i don't think dark is what i would describe this track the sub project remix, does it more effectivly. there most the vibrant funky percussion and atmospheric layers are removed and lucas' vocals are reduced to just the spoken hook.

however it does also remove some of the brilliance that the original and i am saying this as someone who's played the sub project remix the most of these two. "outside looking in" has quite a few layers and i really like how they made it all work. it seems almost to busy at times but it's builds brilliantly with tension and release and lucas' vocals, both sung and spoken really work as a part of that. banging.

buy here (junodownload)

natacha atlas - amulet (16b remix)

as far as "amulet" goes that has been one my favourite natacha atlas songs since i discovered her songs on compilations but for this remix it was a whole different ordeal. my thought might be failing me but when i stumbled upon it i wasn't on either a natacha atlas or a omid "16b" nourizadeh kick, it was through random turn of events.

upon hearing it the first time i was distraught with the little use of the atlas' vocals but i really liked the tune at hand so i stopped caring about that. i saw the potential instantly with a interesting beginning with a long beatless section which then goes into full force as the first kick comes in. basically perfect setstarter material and at the time i discovered it i was playing more house material and deeper houser even this isn't that deep.

16b's remix feels like a whole new entity with some random vocal samples from the original but on a closer listen you notice that nourizadeh used the bassline and the chords from the song. the big difference is that they are slowed down and that they are refitted from a raï rhythm to a house groove. the bassline which sounds like it's been replayed with a double bass is also a big part of why i took a big liking to the remix. the other element is all the plucked strings and the lovely moodful pads.

buy here (junodownload)

pepe deluxé - girl! (jori hulkkonen house of boy mix)

another song or track that i've discovered when purchasing random cd-singles without having a clue on the song at hand. in this case the cosign was on of finland's finest doing a remix and i was quite into the works of hulkkonen at the time and still am. for this single it was doing the house-remix for the floors as the original was a sort of swanky breakbeat tune.

fact is that the original has it's je ne se qouai but i think the vocal and track doesn't glue together and this is why i don't think it's anything special. pepe deluxé lifted an intro from american rhythm and blues acts the president's "girl you cheated on me" from the album "5-10-15-20-25-30 years of love". it's a bluesy opener with a churchy organ going about in the background and tony boyd talking about a lover who's cheated on him with some harmonising at points.

after that it goes of into a quite a bumping soul number with a bassline that pepe deluxé replayed but hulkkonen took another route for bassline, vocals and melody. the vocal was reformatted a bit to to be most streamlined and letting the words "cheating me" be the punchline of sorts. the track at hand is a textbook example of hulkkonen's funky grooves that builds slowly and impacts heavily.

buy here (catskills webshop)

system 7 - sal del mar

was planning to do an entry on system 7's more paceful tracks and from this album both the starter and ender are quite nice but this track comes in my mind every once a while. "seventh wave" as an album was introduced to me by a mate that was into the psychadelic side of trance but liked the sounds of system 7. in general they are an act that i know of and their different phases but i've always been into their heads down trancy sounds.

you certainly hear that "sal del mar" is a system 7 production by the sounds used even if the choice of pace and groove hasn't been that prominent since the earlier days of the act. in general they were quite known for collaborations but this comes from a time when the output consisted of mostly giraudy and hillage on their own.

it's spacious house music that sounds like hiroshi watanabe's dreamy works as kaito through the filters of that early west coast deep house sound from dubtribe soundsystem and the likes. the feeling of entrancing motions is strong even where a really groovy bassline is the dominant force. with a solid base below there is a whole lot going on up top and if isn't hillage's long sweeping guitar sounds that form as pads, it's giruady's keys and synths. lovely track

buy here (junodownload)

looptroop rockers - hårt mot hårt (with cleo)

as mentioned before looptroop was in the making of releasing a new record and if "fuel" was the starting point for the english album then "hårt mot hårt" is the first outing in swedish. officially this is the first looptroop song released in their own native language and it is one of the best yet. not shy from delving into the difficult topics whether it's social inequality, rasism or police brutality with this song it's about social issues. feminism and genderroles is the main topic at hand but it also talks about encouraging people to rise from the social situation and break free of the norms at hand.

embee created a really trotting beat with a strong backbeat and halftime feel where it's made to fit the screwed down sample of kapten röd's "1.000.000 nollor". over the bassheavy rhythm cosm.i.c., supreme and promoe is on their usual high point in their lyrical game and flow. but the song is stolen by cleo, the guest on the track, who also happens to be one of the best rappers in sweden and one of my favourite emcees.

i've even mentioned that fact before but hearing also cleo in swedish is in another light as i think in most cases, rappers and artists cause the most effect in their native tongue or at least the language they speak regularly. cleo goes off hard about the desire for a more equal society but also an less sexist field of music and not ever wanting to hear things like: "being good for a girl" or the likes. the key point in the song is in the transition between promoe to cleo and this is also where the song intentionally gets stolen by cleo.

promoe starts on a small rant about women should not be judged by their gender and mentioning that they do twice the work and get less paid. alluding to if the difference in salaries between genders but also counting domestic labour which is unpaid and in most cases harder. here cleo interrupts promoe and sets it straight and goes straight off the bat about how she is sick of men keep on trying to be the spokesperson for women. after that it's straight up murderous in lyrics and delivery and once again proves who reigns on top of the swedish rapgame.

buy here (itunes)

mandy reid - tornado

this one comes from my "rebellious" phase of being sick of epic trance's formulaic persistence with overblown leadlines and breakdowns. basically trackstructures that was clinging on to the tried and tested '99 era epic trance model where it was focus on melodies. where as it should be focus on the groove and in some way to be entrancing, even on a hypothetical degree.

i don't know why i went down on that route as "tornado" is still playing the same game as some of those track but the difference that it had a groove. there is no big focus on a melody but it does include a long pad sequence in the breakdown. also the main melodic element is employed through a stab melody that reeks of mid 90's techno like dave clarke's red series. the influences of tech-trance of the marco v dominated era was that kind of surefire but groovy techno.

as the pace of techtrance or trance in general shifted down from the 140 bpm down to 134 bpm or even lower as in this case where it's 132 bpm, the focus within the rhythm changed. "tornado" for instance sounds very house-influenced even though you can hear the traces of epic trance and marco v-style techtrance. the bassline really carries the track throughout and it's one of those where it's impossible not to be affected to it.

for me i used to bang it out quite a bit in sets and in some cases i would mix it out before the breakdown if i was in that mood but i cannot really faulter it as it has a purpose. besides b-side "noise 4 fun" had a similar styling to it but it was a bit faster and a bit techier, but i thought the groove in "tornado" was stronger.

buy here (junodownload)

vanessa liftig - where the in and out will go

first time i heard of vanessa liftig was through embee's "not tonite" and as mentioned prior i was transfixed with that voice and eventually i started to look for more material from liftig. also did so with liftig's band mates elsa esmeralda and mimi terres but i think i have mentioned that before also, along with yukimi nagano. it has to be something with the water in gothenberg for to have produced so many great young soul and jazz singers.

liftig has done a lot of music since that time but it has been little that have wowed me but i did know of an album being released in '04 but i had problems locating it and having a listen prior to it being digitzed. all i knew of the full length "when will is silent" from 2004 was that it was rooted in jazz and folk. there was a write up with good reviews on the recordlabels website but the songs that was available on the times i've been on the search has not been to my taste.

after listening to it in full a while ago i would have to say that it is a patchy album with many ideas being presented but not everything being to my taste, well at this time. chances are that i would have reacted differently when i was on my big norah jones phase about 8-10 years ago. i would have probably swallowed the album hook, line and sinker and it would have been another album to parade in people's faces about "look how diverse my music taste is".

i used to actually do that a lot when people pointed out that i mainly listened to untz-untz-untz music and i would respond with that "i also like system of a down and this and that band, sarah mclachlan, norah jones, this and that hiphop artist and etc etc". the point to mention adult contemporary music like mclachlan and jones was to say "i too have a mature side in my music".

never the less as i went through the album at large i did have some favourites and they were songs that didn't sounds so standard singer/songwriter:y. now i don't slate the music when i say that but it's a little to clean cut at times. "a stone to take home" starts very plain but as the song progresses there's a heavy blues moment in the second half of the song. "when the in and out will go" also is like that at to an extent but the arrangement is different.

the music feel like a melancholic dream as the guitar pushes forward and the drums are very suggestive and reactive in their quaint nature. all along this cello is countering the rhythm as it flows free and makes a splash when it cuts through the motions. random reviewal bullshit writeup aside i love this song and it's structure in the same way i love jessica lauren's "swamp thing". basically somewhat trippy or dreamy and suggestive music

buy here (7digital)

silicone soul - the poisoner's diary (ewan pearson instrumental)

during the middle of the noughties soma records pulled out a few singles that was eighties influenced to say the least. singles & remixes from from the labelrosters flagship artists like silicone soul and slam but also ewan pearson that was quite connected to the label, the already quite retro-leaning vector lovers but also my robot friend that was tied to the label for a short while.

the third single from second album "staring into space" was "the poisoner's diary" and featured stuart gray from the band viva stereo on vocals. now that doesn't really matter as i couldn't stand gray's vocal on pearson's remix or silicone soul's original for that matter. this remix was one of my favourite tunes of 2005 and i used to bang it out in each set that it worked in. it came at the right time in my taste of music as i was going through my italo phase at the time.

you would find play beginner's stuff like "the chase", cowley stuff and accessible italo disco with some kick.  then eventually i would slide into house and techno material that was either influenced or in that mindset and then work in something like this track. the brilliance lies within the drive of the track and it's synth programming where it used silicone soul's ideas and melodies and shifted them and also gave them some progression.

buy here (soma webshop)

adam f & lil' mo - where's my...?

a few days ago i had the bassline of "where's my" in my head and i remembered how good this song was. since it came out in 2001 the first time i heard it was around the time of it's release and it had the sound of the club bangers of the time so i became a fan of it. with regards to adam f, i knew that the prior output was almost strictly drum & bass as i knew of "circles" and the likes. the news had also come out after "stand clear" or "smash something" that adam f was to do a straight up hiphop album.

for lil' mo it was one of the rising stars in the r&b and hip-hop scene and you had hits like "superwoman part II" with fabolous and the horrific "put it on me" by ja rule. note is that i'm not taking a shit on the latter since i don't want to kick someone when they are down but i did not like that like that song and i heard it everywhere that year. however "where's my...?" wasn't something that i heard in the plentyful but it's a great club banger with lil' mo excelling in the flow of the verses, to the extent that it's less sung and more rapped.

in context of "where's my...?" then "superwoman part II" is a good idea to mention since they are sonical cousins but then again i think there is another song that has to be mentioned. basically the impact of timbaland's production on aaliyah's "try again" was monumental on what was r&b and hiphop during the turn of the century along with productions of darkchild & shake'spere.

adam f took the idea of "try again" and jacked it up on steroids and instead of that waggly bassline with a moderate squelch you get a heavy buzz. the effect is fastmoving lfo controlled sawtooths pushing it to limit in the lower midrange. one would have to say that extent of using such typical sounds & aestethics for the timeperiod on "where's my...?" and on the rest of the album is dating it. however the song and the album in general holds up well with the incredibly crisp production and sans one questionable guest appearence it's a well recommended in general.

buy here (itunes)

jessica lauren four - swamp thing

as i went through some of the tracks that i've favourited on soundcloud i noticed that a preview of release by the jessica lauren four was part of them and i had forgotten about it. my memory might fail me but i was quite up on the three tracks previewed and was looking forward to the album, but it just slipped out my conciousness. never the less it's never too late to appreciate good music and by the time i had my re-listen to the preview i noticed that the album alluded to was released and "swamp thing" comes from it.

usually i would write that "i discovered jessica lauren through this or on such and such track or project" but i've already written this twice in this blog already. so i will get down to the nitty in terms of the selftitled album and with a few listens i quite like it. it's fusion jazz that draws influences from all sorts of places including lauren's dabs in dance music which also has it's telltale signs.

the music is very percussive and rhythm driven and jessica lauren's keyboards and piano often stands either majestic on top of the rhythm or floating with the bass & drums. jocelyn brown also makes an appearance on the album with two songs being graced by those rich divine vocals. i do prefer "happiness train" over "i believe" but only because i think the percussion is given too much of a role in the wrong places. "i believe" is a strong ballad but it should have been just keys, bass, light drums and the guitar that also comes in.

another highlight is album starter "white mountain" that was part of the single release and it was the combination of heavy rhythms and lauren's broad piano lamenting it's brilliance. however it is "swamp thing" that tickle my aural tastebuds with its broad bassline and lauren's beautiful keys playing really long notes. the tempo is set to slower and it almost sounds like a meditative piece set in the context of "western music".

what comes to mind as well of that type is the king britt remix of tony scott's "hare krishna" for the second edition of verve's remixed.only you have less hippie-esque associations and more headknoding action with the elements all providing something to bob to, in a moderate tempo that is. equally awesome though.

buy here (freestyle records webshop)