Elektro mixes....friend, foe or just a bunch of rubbish.

I'm writing this because of the amount of Elektro remixes I'm hearing lately of songs that should be considered classics. Some of these are Silence (Delerium), Infinity (Guru Josh) and King Of My Castle (Wamdue Project) to name but a few.

If you know your trance, you will know that Silence was probably one of the biggest tunes to hit the scene back in the day. Tiesto made it legendary (in my honest opinion) with his remix of the track, and if i remember clearly, hearing THAT mix is what got me hooked on the stuff in the first place. So to me, not only is it one of the greatest songs of all time, but its also like a starting point, a checkpoint, a whatever you wanna call it. My first taste of vocal trance. My first hit of smack that has kept me coming back. Anyway you look at it, that song probably means alot more to me than any other because of the journey it has set me on.

Enough ranting and getting nostalgic. On to my main point. Are the new Elektro mixes doing these classics justice or are they just crappy remixes being made to bring back the old tunes so they can be more appealing to this new generation of club goer, and in turn make a few quick bucks off the already big name of the original tracks. People that hang around with me alot will be used to this phrase by now....."Fucking marketing!"

On one hand i do actually like some of these tracks. In the case of Silence 2008, i was already cursing and swearing when i heard the first few seconds of it, only to find out its an Elektro mix. But once it got to that "climax", that hook, the part that gives you the adrenalin rush when you imagine yourself at a gig in the crowd screaming your head off......i was hooked. But still, its the principal. Remakes are not always the best thing, and can ruin the reputation of the original, whatever it may be. (In terms of films, i think the originals of Japanese horrors such as Ju-On, etc, are much much better than the American remakes.)

Moving on, Infinity, originally by Guru Josh, now known as The Guru Josh Project, has been re-released. There are two main versions I've heard (besides the original) and i think these two are actually the best so far. Both of them by Klaas. One is just the Klaas Remix, the other one is the Klaas Vocal Edit (same as Klaas Remix, but with some vocals thrown in there). The vocal edit is the one i like most, because i can sing along when I'm shit faced.

God I'm prattling on today aren't i :S

And now, a track i stumbled on a couple of days ago. Armada music has (recently, i think in October) released a 2009 version of King Of My Castle. I'm sorry but i'm forced to be a little biassed here. I'm a big big BIG fan of Armin Van Buuren, and the fact that this song is coming out of his label is good news for me. The song IS actually really good though. I've been a fan of the original since it was first released, even including it in some of my underground mixes i've made. (interested? heres a link for you to hear some of my tunes) I still remember that whole anime music video they had (i actually got banned from watching MTV once because we had visitors over and that came on, and unfortunately my mother saw it and found it quite embarassing. boo!)

Last one i just remembered. Time to slag off a track. Remember Rozalla, Everybody's Free? Well i stumbled on a Dance Nation Remix of that. I really think they completely butchered the track. Ok, well maybe not completely. But the Eifel 65 style vocals they added in there just killed it i think. Why not just let Rozalla sing by herself instead of trying to add in those crappy male/synthesized vocals. Other than that, the instrumental was actually spot on. Gets you right into the groove at the climax. Aquagens remix from a couple years back (i think it was Aquagens) was actually really good though. However, once again, the Global Deejays' Elektro remix killed it sorta. It grows on you i guess (as i just found out)

Enough now. I'll go look around for more tracks to slag off :P

P.S. Words in RED are youtube links.