Not since Stix and Stoned Outrageous have I associated The Judge with a decent trance track, but bugger me, that’s just what he’s done here.
The original mix is just about okay and I’d skip it to be honest, the Marcus Schossow remix is where it’s at with a much more proggier and sophisticated angle. I love a hands in the air breakdown, but with so much trance music it doesn’t really sit comfortably with the rest of the track. This tune is ace.
Beachball is one of my favourite tracks from back in the days when Paul Oakenfold used to bash it out to a packed courtyard each week at Cream in Liverpool.
Beachball is also one of the tracks I think is best suited to a series of modernising remixes, which is exactly what it’s had on the varous Beachball 2010 releases.
Rather than plumping for one of the excellent progressive house remixes of the track which I’m sure will be a hit in all the usual places, I’ve actually plumped for the trancier Myon and Shane 54 remix.
The remixers have done a sensible job of not overcomplicating the modernisation, and have kept in the distinctive bongo, bird sounds and riffs. And while first time around the instrumental version stole the show, the vocal in this instance is really well worked and doesn’t sound at all dated.
Another noteworthy mention has to go to the excellent Joris Voorn remix which first alerted me to the track.
Here’s a link to the original beachball. Just to prove even the best tracks can be completely ruined, here’s Tall Paul murdering beachball.
Privilege by Estiva has been doing the rounds for a while getting play from people like Markus Schultz and AVB, and it’s the main track on the recently released Friends & Enemies EP. It’s REALLY good. Trackitdown categorises the track as progressive trance, which while I don’t agree with the term, can see where they’re coming from. A nice chunky but still melodic bass gives out to an amazing epic breakdown, with strong sub bass and synth stabs. Proper spine chilling stuff. The break gives way to an un-hurried and melodic end section of the track, which to be honest is a little bit slow. This part of the track does feel a bit trance-slowed-down. I’d still buy it though.
I like Ali Wilson, and normally I hate ‘tribal’ trance tracks involving ethnic sounds. But Pandora is an exception to my normally strict rule that anything tribal is shit. This is actually rather good.
On a more general blog note, I’m going to reduce my word count and increase my post rate, we’ll see how it goes.
It’s very very rare that a label releases a track with a commercially viable vocal version and a dancefloor friendly dub where both are actually reasonable tracks. You tend to get one or t’other. However in this case hats off to the people at Anjunabeats as they seem to have pulled it off reasonably well.
In terms of the commerically viable version I think that both the original and the Rank 1 version do the job nicely. I particularly like the snappy orchestrals in the Original. But I’m not here to write about tracks which chart or I’d have far more traffic and no soul.
The track which really gets me moist is the Ian Flux and Thomas Blofeld Dub mix. When I first heard this track the breakdown really reminds of Nitrous Oxide Morning Light, no shocks there they are on the same label. The Ian Flux and Thomas Bloefold mix has a dirty and driving bassline, which gives away to an amazingly euphoric and orchestral break, which starts with a plucked guitar sound gradually adding the orchestrals and effects before a slight pause wallops you into a big old arms-in-the-air break. My only slight criticism is the added crowd noise in the background at the end of the break. I think this record will elicit its own noise without having to sample it!
I’ve also just noticed that this the first time I’ve blogged a track before it’s three months old. Go me.
Tomcraft’s original was just the right side of cheesy and as a result has been a firm staple on the festival, club and horrid club-bar circuit for years so I’ve often wondered how a re-work of this track would end up. Actually I’m rather pleasantly surprised by both the Niels Van Gough and the Adam K & Soha’s Shadow remix
The former is a more proggy outing with a well filtered use of the vocal with an excellent bassline a minimal breakdown and is a really driving track
On balance I think the Adam K & Soha’s Shadow Remix has it for me, and I think this’ll be the one that gets the airplay. It’s a muchwarmer and more upbeat track suited to a mid-set prog or house set and would probably lift the bloody lid of a party. I’m a particular fan of the break in this track which builds to a wicked crescendo, in fact it keeps building for nearly two whole minutes.
It’s certainly got me bopping at my desk.
Out of the cold winter and dance music hibernation, we finally emerge to the thaw, and some decent records. Thank feck for that I was starting to get really bored.
I love Binary Finary, and in a self congratulatory moment of geekiness I can say that I bought the first ever double A side release of 1998 on Aquarius in 1997 and it’s still one of my most prized pieces of Vinyl. This tune was a really genre-changing track in its time and various re-releases and tweaks over the years have stayed true to the original.
The DJ Kharma & Mighty Atom mix is true to the tradition of giving this tune the lightest possible of touches, bringing it up to date without killing it. The original of this track is VERY fast so like all subsequent remixes it’s needed a bit of a down-shift in BPM.
A great upgrade of the original bassline and a slowing of the tempo gives this track great prog, or main set house potential. I feel that they could have taken the breakdown further along the lines of the PVD version which would have worked really well in a proggy track such as this.
Either way, it’s a great track which I’m certainly going to download and play a lot!
One of the simplest, tranciest and most melodic tunes of the summer, but then again that’s what Anjunadeep does.
What got me about this track and caused me to buy it was a breakdown that would heat up any dancefloor. This track is a perfect mid-set pace changer, which throttled up a bit would work in a trance set perfectly. At 0% pitch this tune bubbles along perfectly in a progressive set. With a bass line which just lends itself to a club system this tune evokes summer vibes on the coldest of days.
Original mix
Vadim Soloviev remix – bugger me this is good.
Only after buying and playing the original a lot did I happen upon the B side. I have to say that this is the thing that the nubreed are going to miss on the most. Old vinyl junkies like me have discovered some of the best tunes in our boxes to be a B side or a double A that we woudln’t have bought at the time, but actually, a few months later, the freebie knocks the shit out of the original.
Well that’s how I feel about the Vadim Soloviev remix of Deep Orange. Okay the breakdown isn’t quite as simple or effective in my view, but other than that, this dirtier, bassier track ticks all the boxes. The intro to the track is melodic with a threatening hint of big beats to come, bassline kicks in at around the minute mark and it’s hold on to your hats time.
A great DJ tool of a track thanks to the intro, I’m a big fan.
I can sniff out a decent bootleg at a thousand paces and this track from Tom & Jerry is a great re-visit of Rui Da Silva’s Touch Me.
Tom Novy and Jerry Ropero bring the tune right up to date with a great trancey late-summer kind of vibe. Abagail Bailey has been around the scene for a number of years and is an acomplished vocalist.
Her DJing is taking off well too. There’s a great unplugged verision of the vocal of this track on her Myspace Player which is pretty cool.
During the mid 90′s Platipus knocked out consistently great releases including quite a few by Art of Trance and things like Clanger Sea Dog.
Madagascar is very typical of the Genre and also benefited from a second outing thanks to a Ferry Corsten remix which gave it a very slightly heavier trance feel and was in my view more popular across mainstream dancefloors and Ibiza.
I think it’s maybe dated a little as a track but I’ve heard it rock parties like Alumni a few times so it’s still very popular. It’s quite an uplifting track without over-doing the tweaks and trickery.