Harry Diamond & Jim Sullivan pres Echoplex
» Ovation (Original and Off the Wall mixes)
Reviewed by scottie-nye
/ Submitted 08-12-03 21:37
Label: 5AM
Format: 12" Vinyl
Genre: Trance/Tech Trance
Yet another track from the prolific Harry Diamond, this time in partnership with Jim Sullivan, engineer extraordinaire, with credits on releases on labels such as Nukleuz, Interflow, Digital Beats and Ascendant Heights to his name. Mr Diamond is, IMO, one of the most exciting production talents around at the moment, with fingers in the hard trance, hard house, trance and techno pies, releases on Nukleuz, Interflow, Five AM as well as several bootlegs, most recently as the Lost Bros with a trance version of the Lost Boys theme tune, and not forgetting, one of the classic "proper" hard house tracks Little Diamond "Do You Hear Me?" in partnership with Little Jon of DP fame.
Having heard their first release as Echoplex "Def By Stereo", on 5am records, therefore, I was waiting for this with baited breath, and once more, I am happy to say, I was not disappointed.
A what is now fairly standard 6 loop kick drum and percussion, with some intro leads us into a nice driving bassline, not to bassy and a little old school sounding, especially with the delicate percussion and big clap. The tune chugs along nicely with a nice little acid line giving it some beef, before 2 new elements are introduced - the vocal sample, and a sub melody. Very cleverly, the synth used here makes the sub melody sound very similiar to the vocal, which is a sort of operatic sighing noise, and then track builds from this in a "questions and answer" style until the main break. Here, the tune is stripped back to the vocal, some lush pads, and the main melody filtered in until it takes on quite a sinister sound, then filtered back into a quite beautiful sound, before kicking back in again with the backbone of the tune, and, well, its bloody brilliant. It then cuts back to the beat and bassline for a few loops, before a little breakbeat section precedes the final break and off we go again. Driving, euphoric, trancy brilliance.
On the flip we have the "Off the Wall Mix", which thinking about it, is a fairly appropriate moniker! Things start off with a fairly hefty kick drum and clap, with bit of an echo on it, then again some very delicate percussion, giving the whole thing a very technoey feel. A steel drum roll then heralds the introduction of the bassline, and a very odd affair it is again - a very metallic, hollow sound, yet strangly driving - the best word i can use to describe it is "cheeky"! Anyway, the whole effect of this is to give a very pleasant, rolling feel to the track, and a real head nodding quality. The vocal and melody again come in in their "q and a" style, but at the end of the break, things kick back in with quite a german sounding, repetitive lead synth - much less euphoric than the original mix. The lead is then stripped out, before eveything builds up once again to the break, and then the lead synth takes us through to the end of the track.
So there we have it, two very different mixes of the same track, and both excellent at that. The original mix is the one that will be getting rotation from the majority of the trance DJ's, but I think the braver, slightly more experimental dj's would find room somewhere in their sets for the Off the Wall mix - it would be an excellent track for a warm up set for example, and possibly of use as a filler track or a harder trance dj.
When I first put this record on, and listened to it the whole way through, it actually made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - its a tune that reminds me very much of the golden era of trance, that evokes emotion and happiness even when not listened to in club environment. When buying records, I usually try and visualise the effect the track would have in a club - I didnt need to with this, so much did it stand out.
There is an awful lot of excellent trance music being released at the moment, a lot of it by UK production talent. However, the number of tracks that have stood out head and shoulders as a future "Scottie Classic" are few and far between. This record, however, is one of them. Go buy it. 
If you would like me to review your track for Harderfaster, please email dj_scottie_nye@hotmail.com
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