Friday 15 February 2013

minimalistix - close cover (filterheadz remix 2)

"close cover" was a track i heard in '02 at around the time of it's release and then the version most important to me and most dj's i was following was the svenson & gielen remix. i bought the cd-single quickly thereafter as the nordic division ministry of sound issued it along with few of the remixes but not the original version, not that it matters but that always irritated me. that practice sometimes happend where you would get edited version of the vocal mixes and full instrumental version as in the case of hamasaki ayumi's "connected" on drizzly.

much like previous singles "struggle for pleasure" and "a forest", there were a lot of remixes ordered up but in this case there was a few more than the usual as it became a bigger hit. even though the single i have is on ministry of sound's nordic offshoot, most of the versions came from the original releases on mostiko/sphear. it included as mentioned prior a remix by svenson & gielen but also a decent outing from 4 strings and but two mediocre ones from bossanova (decoy, nord & bonka) and dj bonka & dj gert's own version. last not but least there was one by belgian progressive and techno act the filterheadz which are brothers bert & maarten wilmaers.

i wasn't up on the filterheadz remix practices of the minimalistix tunes when i heard this remix i didn't hear wim maerten's piano melody from the piece of the same name. someone later informed me on how minimalistix's outings at the time was mostly remakes of several pieces and songs and the filterheadz versions were very loosely based on the them.

this all started from "struggling for pleasure" that was a remake of the soft verdict (aka wim mertens) piece from 1983. it should be noted that cosmic baby & dj kid paul also borrowed it for "café del mar" which they made as energy 52, but they changed the melody and chords slightly. filterheadz kept a few sounds in their remix but in general it was much more deeper and groove-based. the tempo was taken down a smidge from the 138 bpm territories and the melody was changed heavily.

with the following single that was a remake of the cure's "a forest", the filterheadz used the same method but also renamed the track "into the trees" (which is a line from the song). this is why the remix for "struggle for pleasure" is also listed as "struggle for leisure". the single that was released after "close cover" was based on angelo badalementi's theme from the tv-show "twin peaks" called "falling", for filterheadz remix it was dubbed "firewalkers".

for the track at hand this track is called "close but undercover" which arguably isn't a great pun. the wilmaers brothers decided to do two versions for this one and my single includes the second one. they have on some releases the names "belgian sprouts mix" and "belgian waffles mix" respectivly but my single just lists the track with no alternative titles or puns and the likes.

they are in the same idea as prior remixes and both versions share the same sounds but the first one is much more light and melodic and is the counterpart to the second version which a bit darker and focuses more on the groove. if you work it correctly it's a great tool at hand for builds as it's driving and has a great rhythm but it should be noted that it does have a large breakdown. on the second mix however it does the have the tribal drum loop present throughout even though the top has been rolled off. perfect for longer transitions i say.


buy here (junodownload)

No comments: