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Once again, we called upon the people to enter
remixes for our newest single “First Embrace.”
We will attempt to release some of the finalist's
remixes on future releases (ie. bonus tracks on
our album, compilations, etc. )
Again
we were overwhelmed with the response. We got
several late entries too, we figured we’d
count them all, because you can’t really
count on the postal service for timely delivery
of mail, except of course, bills.
I
would like to thank all of those who entered for
not only submitting excellent quality work but
for building a community of up and coming artists.
We are entering a new age where it’s possible
to create audiophile-quality tracks from a home
studio. We received several submissions that were
24bit 96Khz encoded tracks that sounded fantastic.
Again, we had a difficult time agreeing to a winner
so we burned cds of the final 24 entries that
were the most musical or commercially viable,
listened to them for two weeks and narrowed the
field to 6 finalists. We then employed a weighted
rating system for each entry. With each one of
us counting our top three entries. Krystyna, Randall
and I sat down to decide the winner(s) on Sunday
January 30th 2005.
We had entries from Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Germany,
Italy, Austria, Russia and the US. We narrowed
the list to six finalists and then picked them
in order of preference. The styles ranged from
breakbeat, darkwave, electroclash, vocal trance,
progressive house ambient, triphop and synthpop.
No deep house remixes, hrm.
The six finalists in no particular order were,
drum roll please:
Expander Remix (Restor
Bass & Dj Clever - Poland)
This entry is a very well-produced vocal trance
remix. We all seemed to enjoy track’s flow
and energy. I can imagine this working well in
any dance club playing vocal trance. This remix
won bonus points for creating a new lead melody
which gives the track an “anthem”
quality.
Amurai Remix (Manvel Ter-pogosyan
- USA)
This is another very well produced vocal trance
version. Again, we all thought it would work great
on the dance floor. This has a great driving beat
and starts out sounding like Binary Finary’s
1998. This remix also has a great break, with
a slow build and great release. I’m sure
we’ll see more of this guy.
Maize Factor (Martin
Sobczak - Poland)
This remix entry wasn’t even submitted into
the contest. We found it posted it in a tranceaddict
forum. We all really like the moody nature of
the track. It’s reminiscent of Enya with
White Town. It has the addition of a new piano
melody that’s just awesome! It then kicks
into overdrive using much of the original arrangement.
We liked the fact that it wasn’t trance.
Great job!
Dax Wadley Remix (USA)
I was the only one who voted for this remix. And
it was my top choice. I personally liked it because
it had a new melody that’s really addictive.
It also added a new piano lead that’s awesome.
It’s also worth noting that I don’t
typically like tracks that have a four on the
floor beat. But this track some nice builds and
releases. The remix is just powerful and sounds
great in a club or in your car doing 120MPH! Not
that I ever do that. Ahem.
Infinite Beat Remix (Mikael Andersson
- Sweden)
This is another vocal trance remix. We all like
the tight production and the addition of a new
driving melody that sticks in your head for days
and days. This is also the only remix that had
a chord change in it. That’s not the reason
it won though. It had a great breakdown reminiscent
of ATB.
Trotski's Block Remix (Shane
Terpening - USA)
This is the second time that Shane Terpening has
submitted a remix for one of our contests. And
boy what a year makes! Shane’s remix for
our first single “Shiver” well, needed
some help. He didn’t make the final cut.
This new remix surprised us all! Great Job! This
was the only remix out of over a hundred entries
that was selected by all three of us as one of
our top three favorites. This track has this driving
VNV Nation sounding beat and just kicks ass. Shane
also added a new somber melody that just invokes
feelings of despair and dread. Love it!
The Voting matrix looked like this:
Expander
Amurai
Infinite Beat
Maize Factor
Shane’s Mix
Dax Wadley
Our top picks:
| |
Pierre
|
Krystyna |
Randall |
| Top
Pick (3 pts.) |
Dax |
Infinite |
Infinite |
| 2nd
Pick (2 pts.) |
Shane |
Amurai |
Shane |
| 3rd
Pick (1 pt.) |
Maize |
Shane |
Maize |
WINNER:
Infinite Beat Remix (Mikael Andersson -
Sweden)
When tallying the score, Infinite Beat remix came
out on top with 6 points, Shanes’s Mix just
missing with a score of 5 points. And finally,
Dax Wadley with a strong third place finish with
3 points.
There may be some argument that this matrix may
not be fair due to the fact that Shane’s
mix was the only entry selected in each of our
top three. We have been discussing again the possibility
of actually releasing a “First Embrace”
CD-Maxi single or a 12” vinyl which may
hold some more remixes. Stay tuned for more info.
Honorable Mentions:
Encoder
This entry is also one of my favorites. It just
missed consideration for the top six finalists.
We all really liked it too. I really liked the
new melody. It just gives this mix a whole life.
I think if we get that reverb/delay down on the
vocals, we could release this track in the future.
Atom Zero
This entry also just missed the finalists. This
is a dark electro remix. I loved its simplicity
and driving bass. This also had some new percussive
elements and some interesting vocal effects. This
remix added some nice builds and instrumentation.
Heaven Bent
I don’t know how to classify this entry.
But sometimes, that’s a good thing. This
has good rhythm programming and some interesting
samples in it. It’s dark and moody and well
done.
Jamie
Ballantyne (UK)
This entry is somewhat downtempo, somewhat ambient.
Been listening to Aphex Twin? We were definitely
awarding points on originality of the mixes. And
this one is about as original as any that was
submitted. This has some interesting vocal treatments
and vocoder effects. I really liked it. This may
still be released on vinyl. Check back.
There
were plenty of other well-produced tracks not
listed here. We truly appreicate all the effort
of each musician/producer that contributed a remix.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks
again,
Pierre Norman
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