Happy New Year and welcome to 2016! I’ve been having a sift through the inbox recently and there are some absolutely amazing releases coming that we’ll be reviewing over the next few weeks. Let’s kickstart 2016 talking about this amazing release on one of my favourite labels; Stereo Productions.
Fresh from producer ‘Joeski’ is this 6-part release of his track ‘Champion Sound’ including remixes from the likes of Rafa Barrios, Tini Garcia, DJ Fronter and Level Groove, with two mixes from Joeski himself. The original mix consists of some reggae/ska brass stabs, giving the track a real Caribbean feel, and some sketchy drums laid under what sound like Ragga vocal one-liners. Sat nicely under it all it a bouncy deep bass groove which compliments it all nicely. Joeski’s other mix is the ‘Boombastic Remix’ which is quite similar to the original but is more like a club version with a punchier bass groove and more tech-based drums, I’d say this remix is a slightly more predictable version of the original; still really good though!
Moving on to the Rafa Barrios Remix. This remix has some big hats throughout and the bass groove is a lot deeper. I’m playing this in my home studio and the bass frequencies are pretty much perfect, sounds awesome! So this has the original vocal elements sat over the hats, bass and a nice little siren. Love it!
Next up is a remix from DJ Fronter and from the off it’s a nice techy number, nice use of the sidechain on the pads during the intro and then into a big long breakdown. Now, I was expecting a pretty standard build and drop (which ultimately is what happens), but then a long horn sound comes in before the risers and snares, and then a huge drop into a deep tech banger!
If you’re a follower of Tini Garcia’s work, like me, you’ll have high expectations for this remix, and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s deep, melodic and has some really nice subtle chord stabs along with the vocal and brass stabs from the original. I’m a huge lover of a drum fills when they are used properly and this one has a little reggae-infused fill right before the drop. Great remix work.
And the final remix comes from Level Groove. This one has a nice bouncy repetitive bass pattern and some simple drums combined with some little vocal stabs. It has a nice long breakdown with a droning sound throughout, a big build up with snares and whooshes with loads of reverb before the drop. Not my favourite of all the mixes of I’m honest but awesome work nonetheless.
All mixes were released just before Christmas exclusively to Beatport, check it out..
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