chakra - home (tilt's topline mix)

"home" is a song that has countless good versions so chances are that i will make another entry about say the solar stone remix of the salt tank reconstruction. parks & wilson had a knack for making great punchy epic trancers and this was no exception. driving beats, great melodics that were in tune and fit with the track at hand and it didn't fanny around.

there is only one thing i don't like about it and that's the drop in the beginning of the track that reminds me sort of the classic anthony pappa & alan bremner moment "skydive". part of what bugs me with both is when trying to eliminating them makes the track seem you have cut out something substantial when you have not. when i do my nips and tucks on tracks like this to remove elements like small breaks or segments with awful synths or vocals and such, i try to execute so it's not noticeable.

tilt's remix came for the '99/'00 re-release of home and besides them there was also remixes by above & beyond, rob searle & mara. chakra was one of the many projects from rick simmonds & stephen jones, more known as the space brothers. the space brothers in general were known for making vocal trance that didn't suck, almost...

a key to their success of pulling this was that they knew vocalists that had a good vocal range. one that they worked with on many of occasions and on all of the five chakra singles was kate cameron. simmonds & jones used to write most of the lyrics to the songs and their only problems is that they used these "poetic rephrasings" that can make you cringe. for example in this song cameron sings:

don't be afraid, your world is dark tonight / for without love, how can your spirit sing? / you are a bird with wounded wings / you're not alone, i've come take you home

tilt also made a second version that has been stripped down of the vocal element but also the melodic parts. parks, wilson & graham put their focus on the rhythm and while it's brilliant as a piece in a set, it's also a bit boring. actually boring is the wrong word but the melodic aspects were part of the brilliant elements of the track so replacing them with warped sirens and other sounds were just stupid.

for their main vocal version tilt took some of the original melodies and put their spin and synth patches and set it to a new groove. i am a big fan of that conga-loop that they used and is so audible in the mix as it's rare to hear it with this kind of tracks. tilt knew that there wasn't that much of a problem with the original besides a typical 1997 synth patch and some other sounds, all what was needed was an update and refitting and something that would be more longlasting.

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