magnolia - it's all vain (meat katie vs. christian j rollerball dub)

right around 2004 i was suddenly more interested into the essential mixes and heard meat katie's which included his & christian j's remix of magnolia's "it's all vain" and i think it was either through it or by recommendation of a friend. it wasn't the most popular version of the song by far as i know dogzilla's rerub was doing it for the trance crowd and everyone else was focused on the steve angello remix. i don't think much of the former but i love the latter and it rates second best to this version.

it's a piece of driving breaks with a vicious bassline and i have banged this one out in my sets countless of times. the only thing used from nick ferrando's original is small parts of the vocal. the hardsell of "it's all vain" was the track with the cutup guitar and the lush piano break and a hook that owes to michael jackson's "man in the mirror". angello used the piano and the hook to great use and turned in a nice peaktime houser while this is more of a near peak-builder in a big room breaks set.

meat katie & christian j did base this off some previous productions, one of which i can't name for the life of me but i think it's "cusp", but it works really well. it's not completely spun off nick ferrando's original version but the more clubbier versions done innervisions. they feature some of the sounds and most notably the dirty rumbling bass that is the focal point of this remix. meat katie & christian j boiled it down to that and all the driving synthsounds are spun of them. the track oozes of energy and it's the force that is pushing the track forward, it's relentless and it makes your body move. in all of the right ways, as it should be.

buy here (junodownload)

spirit catcher - voo doo knight

as with most people i encountered this track when i was hearing it out in sets and the whenever it was mixed in i kept thinking the same thing: "oh cool, thriller". the key thing with "voo doo knight" is that it doesn't keep the "thriller" bass riff (from the break, not the start) throughout the track, only on the build-up. you hear it build and there is a slowed down hazy vocal giving you "instructions". after it has said it's last fully spoken sentances that there is a whole load of echoed vocal fragments and along with it the high pitched string is being more tenseful.

when it all boils down and you expecting a big drop which maybe is going to lead to the famous bassline from the start of thriller, it changes into a different modus operandi. the acidy bass that were playing the "thriller" notes is uncaged and it goes into a whole different melody and chord. the only thing that is the same with this riff and the "thriller" riff is they are both damn funky. the acidline gets to squelch a bit on it's own but then additional sounds and accents are played along.

the hardcell for this track is that it's a "thriller"-knick with a twist as it ends on a completely different note, it's quite melodic near the end. when the bassline it taken off on the last 16th bars there is more traits to what spirit catcher would release on future releases.

buy here (junodownload)

psilodump - tangens (homerun's breed remix)

chances is that i discovered psilodump's music either through sets on or when i was trawling net-labels on archive.org. simon rahm has spit out a huge amount of music over the years and i have enjoyed a large number of the tracks that i've heard. however i can't remember most of the names except "the night i lost you all you all" and "jag och psilodump", the latter of which includes "jag hatar psilodump" which i love and have planned to do an entry about but have forgotten to do so.

"tangens" is one of his many proper techno numbers but it's aestethic and creative use of sounds and samples makes it distinctive of rahm's other output. i quite like it but i consider pierre jerksten aka homerun's version to be much better. it boils the track down to it's essentials and emphasises the groove which is one of the strongpoints of the original.

jerksten takes the tempo down a smidge and when doing this the rumbling bassline becomes even more powerful. as homerun pierre j is more known for the sort of chuggy tribal progressive house/techno sound and this is no exception except the percussion are more of a background element imbedded into the groove. he puts all the focus on the bassline and as the track progresses, it's doubled up on other synths that are in midrange.

there is also a small melody that was employed in the latter half of the original that jerksten used in the first half of the track right before the break. never the less i wouldn't say that is the key melodic element as the way that midrange bassline, is filtering in and out ever so resonantly, is the hook. it sounds like a processed acid warble backed up with bitcrushing, some white noise and reverb. when it is at it's loudest, you really expect it to explode into some arpeggiated acidline but it never does.

a vicious piece of big room techno. well recommended

buy here (junodownload)

dinky - this is your heart

"acid in my fridge" spread like wildfire when it came out in late '05 and mostly it was tobi neumanns rerub that got most play, including from me. it must have been that been that bassline that did the works including the vocal from alejandra iglesias herself saying "take a trip, there's acid in my fridge" in her somewhat cold demeanour and accented english. it also worked as i was busting out the abe duque remix of chloé's "take care" at the time and chloé thevenin had the same kind of delivery in her vocal.

when i was looking at her catalogue, as i was purchasing the original "acid in my fridge" digitally, a few of her newer releases came to tickle my ears and one of them was the "time to lose it ep" on visionquest. a really well produced ep with a lovely title track and a funky cut called "teka" that i'm sure set some dancefloors on fire. then there was techy "this is your heart" which i remembered that dj sandra mosh played in one of her sets on national radio and i love this track.

it employs a rather subby bassline and on top there a stiff techno groove moving along in a nice pace. the sound from iglesias' synthesizers and machines are present right as the kickdrum go in and you hear a warm pulsating sweeping sound that bring forward an arpeggio that is present throughout the track. the pulsating sound fades in and out of sections and it bring a nice dynamic as it works as the tension builder.  also it wouldn't be dinky without her voice occasionally gracing the track and you hear say "this is your heart" every once a while. great tune.

buy here (junodownload)

circulation - cherry (side b)

this one i heard a few months after it has been released and it was a case of catching up on the latest circulations record. they released one after one or two months and "cherry" was something i originally skipped out on because the a-side was drab boring tech-house and i forgot to listen to the flip. the deal with their record that while the tracks were released under the same colour, they weren't different versions of the song.

fast forward when i did take a listen to the b-side of "cherry" and was in love with it's bubbly and summery house sound. this was also at a time where i was incorporating more house into my sets and while i was still trying to play everything at 130 bpm, i was becoming better at it. i used to play this as bridge into funkier sounds as it pretty much starts with it's strings and pads and lets the rhythm grow in.

i didn't like to use it right smack dab in midset or peak as it was a track in motion and either you used it get to somewhere or to take it down as the last section of the track is great for simmering down as well. no matter how you use it it's a something chunky and summery with nice melodies and some vibrant percussion, all served together with a nice light but round bassline

buy here (junodownload)

das bo - türlich, türlich (sicher dicker)

the result of spending almost the whole summer of 2000 in germany was that i became hooked onto a whole load of german hip-hop, mostly the commercial kind. there was days i wouldn't have anything to do and i would check viva, mtv and other channels of the sorts for the liking. it also helped that my german cousin was quite into hip-hop but more of the american kind.

i would hear countless tracks including dj tomekk's "ich lebe für hiphop", deichkind's "bon voyage", fettes brot's "da draussen" and then this track by das bo. "türlich, türlich" is proper stupid miami bass with lyrics about partying, ladies shaking the behinds and the thirst for more bass. i've actually heard a number of das bo's other tracks and while they nice i have no relation to them as much as this.

at some point i've even heard it out in a club while some dj was mixing up hiphop and beats from all parts of the globe and you would hear something in swahili into french into japanese etc etc. it was at this event i also heard the bass of "türlich, türlich (sicher, dicker)" in it's full glory. it also helps that it drops for a second from it's regular sample of faze-o's "toe jam" for a small replay of technotronic's "pump up the jam".

buy here (itunes)

rosie brown - blow the man down

first time i encountered rosie brown was with the incredibly funky "bliss" which jazzanova put on off their compilations. i love that song and there has been times where i'd listen to it in repeat but apart from it i haven't really dug deep into her catalogue, until a little awhile ago. someone gave me a heads up on "mega fauna" off her latest album "strange recollection" and it was short but equally funky as "bliss".

the album itself is a decent affair but i was looking at from a different state of mind as most of it is folky blue-eyed soul but i was looking for downright funky material. after giving it the old college try i did like this track "blow the man down" as it there was some groove to be found. you had to let the intro with it's wistful horns and rosies vocal introduction go on and then there is something that was a mixture of jazz, folk, country & soul

and the end result turns out really nice.while i don't know what the song is about as brown sings quite lowkey in her usual ways, it is quite interesting musically.

buy here (itunes)

hertz - granit (cari lekebusch remix)

i heard this record at my infatuation with banging swedish techno and i had known of the track on the original ep and pierre jerksten aka hertz's "granit" was just a loop. it was a good groove but apart from some small changes in the drumprogramming, it really didn't go anywhere and was just meant to be played with a shedloads of others.

cari lekebusch's remix came out a month or so after it on a limited released with a pär grindvik remix of adam beyer & henrik b's "walk out". i've had use for both tracks in my sets but i like lekebusch's version of "granit" a lot as he took a tool and made into a track. he also added these vocodered vocalsamples saying "drumcode" & "27.5" (label and cataloguenumber) and i like their presence on the track.

there is also some additional dubby warm stabs and some more reverbed sounds, including these crowdsounds that i'm not really a fan of. i do however like the breakdown and the pseudo-breakbeat that it builds around as it works well in the mix but it's also a good transition point.

listen here (youtube)

micah & nicholas bennison - drivetrain mechanics

"drivetrain mechanics" came as a recommendation during the time when nicholas bennison was being heralded as the new best thing within trance music. not on a pure hype perspective but he along with a select few other producers seemed to make epic trance that was driving and wasn't put all the focus within the breakdown.

it is a collaboration with canadian producer micah lukasewich and is quite a sturdy track, not focused completely on the melody but more on the groove. the thriving bassline sets the pace leaving the percussion to be wild and part of the layers, the way the drum hits are programmed does remind me off when james holden used to wild out. the melodic parts are broad and sweeping but part of the groove with some key parts being emphasised with effects.

overall "drivetrain mechanics" is a fierce builder that has served me well in sets. i know for a certain that lukasewich doesn't like to be associated with the trancier tracks of his past but i've pointed it out to him that he has nothing to be ashamed over. never the less with bennison you have more of this in store in terms of his catalogue. well recommended.

buy here (junodownload)

pinch - teleportation

"teleportation" was something i heard a while ago on juno and i was attracted to hear the release as the a-side was called something as good as "attack of the giant killer robot spiders!". shame the track wasn't as good as the name, sure it had some nifty rustie/flylo-esque type drumchopping going on but that was it. where the main track of the release didn't give me any satisfaction, the b-side really delivered.

going by the intro i thought it was going to be a traditional halftime type of track but after i heard it kick in, there was some nice groove to it. as the track is about the deep subbass and the atmosphere in general there isn't many elements beyond drums, bass and then a few select sounds. one of them is the number of pads that float on top and set the mood. the main one sounds like a wind sample that has been modulated and reverbed to be much longer.

i understand that something like this should be part of a mix and/or heard on a big system as the impact is much bigger in that state but it's also something for headphones. perfect music for nights, winters, autumns or even a drearily hot day smack dab in the summertime.

buy here (junodownload)

blu peter - substance (salt tank psilocybe skies mix)

friend of mine had the threedisc unmixed compilation "21st century trance" that came out on react in '99 and it contained a number of really good tracks. like the fire & ice remix of sunscreem's "exodus", solar stone's "seven cities", the olmec heads remix of rapid eye's "alderaan" and the armin van buuren remix of denzil & dwayne's "force of habit". basically epic trance galore and when i first heard of the compilation in '02, it was those i was after.

later i borrowed the collection and discovered that there was other interesting tracks also like the marc o'tool project ballroom with "4am", the shortlived german project earthbound's "substance" and this one. it was like many of the tracks on the compilation something originally released on react and it's amongst the deeper ones.

blu peter's original revolves around a groovy acidline, this twinkly lead melody and a vocal sample that concerns narcotics. it's quite nice and i like the groove but it's a little to stiff concerning the mood he is trying to project and i don't like how he twisted the vocal with effects. what salt tank did for their version was to focus all on the groove and atmosphere to really emphasise the drug-infused haze for a lack of better terms.

the drums have been changed to something less rigid and with the additional percussive elements it chugs away while the small acidsequence gets almost a solospot in the first half of the song. as the song drops for a small breakdown where it runs the vocal sample and introduces the melody. as the breakdown flows naturally and feels it serves it purpose well for the second half of the track.

salt tank never plays out the melody in full as it expands upon in the original but keeps it as a layer of sound in the reverbdrenched soundscape. they introduce the stringpads and also add another layer of drums that are given some extra delay. so are the pad and most of the other elements and the small but efficient peakmoment where every element is in right before it drops down, is really meaty. love it.

buy here (junodownload)

rihanna - rude boy (marcus price remix)

this particular version of "rude boy" was something that i was given a heads up on through a blog and i had just finished doing my own version of the song when i heard of this remix. my version was something to test out a beat done when messing around with the drums of labi siffre's "the vulture" and the chords to jazzstandard "autumn leaves". meaning a fairly traditional hiphop mix of something that was modern r&b in it's original state.

marcus price however flipped the track around and did a masterful footworky rendition where the pace is fast and the bass hits hard in the lower end. right from the getgo where he loops one of phrases that's been pitched down and processed and along with it you hear the bass in staccato. after some runs of the vocal with plenty of repetition, he lets rihanna sing the verse out in full and goes for the jugular with a mighty bass drop.

he also includes a small synthpatch that plays the same notes as the bass and melody comes out sounding random but it's this madness that makes it all work. the subby tr-808 kicks that is punching through and a relentless clap being the rhythmical backdrop and on the dancefloor, this frenzy is nothing but. it translates to pure energy as the lower end provides a manual to what is essential to dance music.

listen here (soundcloud)

mary - dreamin' of lovin' you (rex mundi sweet techno remix)

"dreamin' of lovin' you" was a record that i bought a few years ago i think on the strength of the jaydee remix but also since i really liked the sleeve. both the main sleeve and the artwork for the record containing remixes by stuart had a magazine layout to it with some of the lyrics printed out as the "article hooks". robin albers (aka jaydee) and boy hagemann who together form rex mundi produced the original and it's a decent housey affair.

on his own solo remix jaydee strips it down on somewhat progressive edge and i like the use of the trumpet but upon listening to the rex mundi remix after i took it home, it was irrelivant. i liked it but i found no use it in my sets but i did with the rex mundi version which is a corker of a track. it sits on the line between pumping clubby big room techno and funky driving trance and it reminds me of the sound that peter horrevorts produced as oliver shine and what was coming out tsunami's special blend sublabel at the time.

the thick groove is kicked off and spearheaded by a driving bassline and is loaded with shuffling percussion and buzzing synths and i really like how they worked this reversed part of the vocal on the buildup and till the break hits. the breakdown features some of the vocals but also serves it's purpose and drops at the right time and creates some tension. after the drop there is more icy pads and airy but fiery synthwashes that has their place on top the groove.

i loved this movement in trance but i had problems with fitting it with other stuff as it was too funky for trance and to trancy for loopy percussive techno. my friend jan henrik was better at playing this kind of material because he also has a broader crate and was turning me onto a number of the tracks. never the less it was exciting for this kind of groove being matched together with the rhythms and sounds of epic trance or whatnot. well recommended.

buy here (junodownload)

upon writing this entry i did some slight research and noticed the song itself is a remake of a song by british r&b act david's daughters. i know them exclusively for their collaboration with swedish hip-hop and r&b project blacknuss and especially the song "don't break my heart". i took a listen to the original on junodownload and i liked it and the remixes, i recommend the stepchild remix on the hip-hop tip and the basement culture mix & sharp boys dub on the housier flavour.

buy here (junodownload)

ppk - i need rhythm 2001

when i was revisiting my old minidisc mixtapes i heard this track that was russian act ppk's remix of fellow russian singer marina khlebnikova's "печаль моя" ("my sorrow"). it was a track that i heard a year after i'd heard ppk's massive hit "resurection" and their album "formation" back in 2002. my friend turned me onto the album and he was into some of the tracks and after i'd heard listened to the whole thing i was hooked on to one track called "мне нужен ритм 2001" ("i need rhythm 2001")

it was catchy and featured this repetitious hook in russian sung by vera kafitina and at one instance i sang the thing while in physics class. it caught the attention of a friend of mine who spoke russian and he asked "why do you need this rhythm?". i already had a grasp of the translation of that lyric but i didn't know the other ones but he kindly translated after he listened to it. they were "i need rhythm" (of course), "i want to be with you" and "take me with you".

the 2001 version of "мне нужен ритм" on "formation" was a remix and it probably made to fit with the other tracks of the album which was a collection of previously released singles and a few new tracks. the original which i heard as well by digging up the mp3 on p2p at the time is a decent but trite commercial not-quite-house-but-not-quite-trancer. ppk did a serious update on it and redid everything and the endresult is a synthheavy epic trancer.

what polyakov and pimenov also did was to fit the track with a proper groove and a nice bassline, it's a variation on the standard offbeat trance bassline but has some swing to it. the treatment of vera's vocals and it's progression of the track is big plus for it and the small chordchange that happens three quarters in is really nice. with the synths there is a whole wall of melodies and sounds blasting through the five minutes it plays out. my favourite is the squelchy one that plays it low the first half of the track but goes up in pitch and resonance after the breakdown and get's somewhat of a solospot on the outro.

buy here (itunes)

aphex twin - vaz deferenz

recently i picked up the "donkey rhubarb" single as it included the magnificent philip glass rendition of "icct hedral". after listening to the whole ep i thought little of "donkey rhubarb" and "pancake lizard" was fun but meaningless. second track on the single was "vaz deferenz" and it was something that i hadn't heard before but i became a fan out it instantly. if it's something richard d james is brilliant at then it's making electro and "vaz deferenz" come through hard.

it reminds me of "isopropanol" and "dodeccaheedron" from the first two aphex twin ep's but it's more techno than proper electro but it doesn't matter. synthesised bubbly and crunchy sounds together with bleeps and bloops on top a rigid sub bass and really hard kicks. it wouldn't be out of place in a techno set or an electro set, depending on what type of electro one is playing. someone like me that is all over the place will cram it with whatever i'm playing. be it some soulful new jersey garage or banging trance, i'd punch it in.

buy here (bleep)

helen cristina - canto de ossanha (gui boratto's extended mix)

another compilation find but it's also something that i found trawling around discogs and saw the name gui boratto in the context of drum & bass. as boratto was blowing up a house and techno producer, this context was even more interesting and i've mentioned that before. the concept of a groovy jungle rendition of one of the most famous brazillian folk songs ever is also interesting and especially when it's as good as this.

i don't know who helen cristina was but i like her vocal effort on this one, i can't say i rate it above astrud gilberto or vincius de moraes (who sang it originally) or elis regina but she nails the song. this version is taken from the compilation "sambass vol. 3" on irma and the concept is brazilian drum & bass but to be honest, i always found this labelling a bit constrained. i understand it but fact of the matter is that in most cases it's just liquid funk and maybe some samba-esque percussion and stylings but it's still housey drum & bass.

none the less with cristina & boratto's version of "canto de ossanha" you have punchy drums and a flowing guitar along with some nice light keyboard sounds. not much of a bassline but they got everything else down quite well and they nailed the summery aspect of the sound.

listen here (youtube)

superpitcher - tell me about it

"tell me about it" comes from the kompakt label compilation total 6 but it was not for it that i purchased the album. it contains kaito's brilliant "hundred million light years", rex the dog's "i look into mid air" and the mfa's "the difference it makes" amongst others. i discovered it when i took it home and skimmed through some of the pieces and the first ten second really hooks you in with it's moody reverbed piano and female vocal sample.

as the song progresses there is a deep techno groove at hand and it's really subdued and suggestive with the element in the intro constantly re-appearing. the echo delay becomes longer and it resonates well with the pulsating synthline that is other driving force. i love the track on it's own as the nature of it makes it not really perfect for the dancefloor, maybe in the early stages of warmups or in afterhours but it's too suggestive and not enough rhythm.

i would describe it as a hypnotic mood piece disguised as deep house and it's awesome at it. well done aksel schufler/superpitcher

buy here (beatport)

dayeene - dancing with tears in my eyes

this one comes from when i used to be glued to sounds of swedish nrj and i heard the dayeene cover of "dancing with tears in my eyes" on a number of occasions. it wasn't a song i really liked and i thought it was annoying, then again i didn't like ultravox's original either, it was a case of that i liked the melody but that's about it. so when i saw the single a year ago my thought was in reluctance but it had a stonebridge remix and i thought he maybe could do something great with the song.

bought it and took it home and when i listened to his remix, i did like it but when i heard the drums in the original my lept with joy. jonas von der burg who produced the song, and also contributed with an ok remix as subsucker, worked some drumbreaks in the jungle stylings and there is even subby tr-808 kicks punching in at times. i still don't think ultravox's original is anything special but here the song shines.

buy here (itunes)

attica blues - 3ree (a means to be) (as one instrumental remix)

found the single a few years ago and it i didn't know about it but thought it was interesting and i really like the original version the most until i listened to kirk degiorgio version. "3ree (a means to be)" is a loose remake of james mason's discotinged jazz-funker  "free" from '77 but it's redone to a whole new set of beats. tony nwachukwu and charlie "d'afro" williams uses a really dirty version of the tommy roe "sweet pea" break and also used the horns from tyrone washington's "submission".

this flip is done quite well but what kirk degiorgio was to focus on mason's composition instead as attica blues only borrowed the lyrics and a version of the bassline. degiorgio also used the "sweet pea" break but it's more powerful and the shuffled hihats and groove mason's track is implied with chaotic mess of drums that is heard.

gene torres' original bassline is replayed synthetically with effects and it fits with the metallic haze that the track brings out. as with the vocals at hand degiorgio decided to a mix of talkbox and vocoder and an affected synthesizer to play the vocal melody and fact is that i love it. it all sounds very retro-futuristic and to use a cliché term, it sounds detroit although not as in techno but more like the funk and space music. detroit as in what the electrifying mojo used to play, if the testimony of all the detroit artists living at those times comes true.

i wouldn't know hence i'm more reluctant to even use the term since my idea from it comes from interviews of stacey pullen, dj t-1000, alan oldham & kenny dixon jr to name a few. i understand that i could easily draw the link to space rock as that's more of an european thing and all the parties involved at making the song (degiorgio & attica blues) are british, however as one is always mentioned in the same terms as detroit. you know what? this isn't detroit music, it's space music and it's awesome.

listen here (youtube)

fatboy slim - first down

"first down" comes from norman cook aka fatboy slim's first album "better living through chemistry" and is like most of the track on the record, a funky groove assembled through an array of samples. it isn't by any stretch one of the most obvious tracks on the album like "punk to funk" or "everybody needs a 303" but when i heard it again a few days, i certainly thought that it was damn funky.

it's constructed mostly out of the groove of fela kuti's 1972 piece "roforofo fight" and follows in the mold of "everybody needs a 303". different loops and samples are brought on and it drops the first time for a introduction of a some phased keys that then gets lost in the mix but they are nice in the groove. the real drop comes halfway in and it's stripped down to bongos and you hear that fuzzy waggle from the silver box. norman lets it grow and explode right when the full beat is kicked in along with the trumpet.

while this one isn't completely original, it's does what it does well. kind of like the modus operandi of this blog.

buy here (itunes)