2003 yearmix

I tried but was mocked soundly.

Britney Spears ft Madonna - Me Against The Music (Gabriel & Dresden Mix) [White Label]
[prog house/prog trance] Josh Gabriel & Dave Dresden have been remixing nearly everyone this year, and did some nice tracks of their own too - they all sound the same though. The best thing about this version is that it completely redeems the absolutely godawful original.

Jewel - Intuition (Markus Schultz Coldharbour Mix) [Atlantic]
[prog trance] This is a lot like the Humate remix of "Boys Of Summer" I selected for last year's mix: a well-known energetic pop tune drawn out, dissected, drenched in dubby echoes and dreaminess. After the break the vocals disappear as the tune spirals even further into an all-encompassing warm aural bath. For Jewel's follow-up "Stand" Schultz divided these parts into two tracks, one more of a straight-up vocal clubber, and one impossibly lush/dubby one - but I like the contrast here.

James Holden - A Break In The Clouds (Main Mix) [Border Community]
[prog house/prog trance] The thing that keeps this track interesting is the rhythm - a skippy, playful, syncopated shuffle dancing over the gamelan-like main melody. There's so much detail in this tune, the way it almost hints at being glitchy but never really is (like the "track in a loop" effect at the end).

Ellen Allien - Open [Bpitch Control]
[glitch/micro house] the track starts out with the reverbed guitars, and spirals into noisier glitch territory. The thing I like best about Ellen Allien is the down-to-earth, human-ness of her music.

Alexander Kowalski - Belo Horizonte (Album Version) [Kanzleramt]
[techno] from album of the year "Response". Fuses the best of Underground Resistance with the direct dancefloor-appeal of Underworld and the German/Swedish school of techno. All Kowalski tracks sound as if it takes him no effort at all, very logical, and natural.

Combostar - In My Soul [Chateau Funk]
[french house] Just when you thought only Daft Punk could do this stuff right, along comes this track out of nowhere. Like Galleon last year, this is full-on, big, fat, compressed, pumping, filtered to hell and back.

Electric Six - Dance Commander (Benny Benassi Remix) [XL]
[electro/house] This year's biggest dancefloor crossover hit was Benny Benassi's "Satisfaction". And just when everybody got sick of that one production trick of his, along comes this remix, mostly ignored in the sea of soundalike Benassi singles and remixes. However, the combination between two of 2003's most outrageous artists results in an absolute stormer of a track. Unlike on the Electric Six tracks, where Dick Valentine's ramblings about fire and war on the dancefloor are the focal point, they serve as MC'ing here, an advertisement for the relentless stomping noise Benassi comes up with. Brilliant production details all over the track: the sliding bass note just before all hell breaks loose again, the reversed "whip hit" snare sound, the breakbeat in the breakdown.

Audio Bullys - We Don't Care (Buffalo Bunch Night Train Remix) [Source UK]
[french house] I had to look twice at the label, because this sure as hell doesn't sound ANYTHING like the original. This remix by the brother of Daft Punk's Guy-Man is the most powerful French house track since Daft Punk's "Mothership Reconnection" remix, it is banging, noisy and repetitive. And the guitar/bass interlude is bizarre.

Waldorf - Fashionist (Disco Metal) [A Touch Of Class]
[electro/disco/metal] ...although not half as bizarre as this track. As if the concept of madly shouting Italian fashion brands isn't rediculous enough, the music is a bizarre mix of 80s metal and disco a la Van Halen "Jump". On the vinyl there's also a hilarious intro where the "Dolce Gabbana Armani Versace" hook is solemnly sung as a gregorian chant.

Radio 4 - Dance To The Underground (Playgroup Remix) [Astralwerks]
[postpunk/funk] I like the Playgroup remix best because is tightens up the slightly meandering original and adds more bass and punch. But in the end it's all about the bassline of course.

Benassi Bros ft Violeta - I Love My Sex 2003 (New Dot Remix) [White Label]
[house] This could only be Italian, and it's a sad thing that few fun, summery pianohouse tracks like this are made anymore. The whispered/processed vocels by Violeta remind of Grand Popo Football Club's "Men Are Not Nice Guys", and the fat disco groove is irresistable. Lots of nice touches, such as the echo on the "S" sounds. I don't have the slightest idea who made this particular mix, as it is not on any of the officially released singles.

Cooler Kids - All Around The World (Punk Debutante) (DJ Monk Pop Shockin' Electro Vocal Mix) [Dreamworks]
[electro] I would never have heard this song if it wasn't for ILM's DarrensCoq. Unoriginal as it may be, this is as perfect as electropop gets these days, with the obligatory detached female vocals, simple production, the sawbass.

Musix - Turn The Page [Club Elite]
[electro/trance] Two things in this track: sound and structure. This is easily the best produced track in this mix - the whole thing sounds incredibly full, rich, detailed, big deep and BALANCED. The electro-bass scrapes the spine, the 909 thumps in the chest, yet it never becomes a "hard" track - in fact it's rather laid back and even playful. The structure is magnificent; M.I.K.E. introduces the elements carefully, sets the mood, then brings the thing to a halt halfway and meticulously builds it up again, with a deep sawbass, reversed sweeps and his trademark clap, for that one moment of release way at the end, when the strings finally descend.

Thomas Bangalter - Outrage [Roulé]
[techno] When producing alone, Bangalters tunes are much darker than Daft Punk - it's hard to imagine this on "Discovery". And yet "Outrage" is one of his finest moments. Relentlessly chugging on and on in all its noisiness, filters red hot, over a melancholic chord progression.

Kate Bush vs Infusion - Running Up That Hill [White Label]
[progressive house] One drumloop, two Kate Bush samples and lots of deep, deep bass. It all seems so simple.

Size Triple D - Techno [White Label]
[techno] There were at least a half dozen tracks based on this sample this year, and while DJ Isaac's one was certainly the funniest (cheekily utilizing the break of Moby "Go") this one is the best. Deep Dish and Danny Howells are behind this, but it only saw a white label release as the sample was obviously not cleared. Everyone played it regardless, because that loop is irresistable.

Marco V vs Jens - Loops & Tings Relooped [ID&T]
[techno/hardtrance] This remake of the early 90s German techno classic is built around Marco V's massive freight train rhythm, his best since "Tolerance". Nothing but bare, primal drive here.

Ron Van Der Beuken - Timeless (Ron Van Der Beuken Remix) [Liquid]
[hardtrance] Everything in this style is about blunt, overwhelming "Shock & Awe" tactics and pure serotonine, and this track is a fine example of how a skilled producer pulls this off. The rolling bassline that was all the rage this year sets the pace nicely, but the gloves really come off in the break where a muted synthline unexpectedly explodes and the track becomes a booming juggernaut.

Deepack - The Prophecy (Qlimax Anthem) [Q-Dance]
[hardstyle] Lots of good hardstyle tracks this year, and while they all roughly sound the same the criteria for tunes like these are simple: who has the biggest kick drum and the noisiest sirens. And this track delivers wonderfully on both points.

Technical Itch - Pressure Drop [Penetration]
[drum 'n bass] One of the few drum 'n bass tracks I liked this year. It's dark and noisy, Dillinja can only wish he sounded this evil. The best thing about it is that it features cut-up breaks again - finally!

Adam Beyer - Ignition Key (Speedy J Remix) [Truesoul]
[techno] This is a modern monolith, the "Jaguar" for the paranoid generation. It is both completely full-on and ambient at the same time, everything produced to induce madness, the nagging pitching sounds, the syncopated snare pattern, the dark strings.

The best thing about this version is that it completely redeems the absolutely godawful original.

Oh hell yes. I was just shaking my head in amazement, it finally worked perfectly.

Unlike on the Electric Six tracks, where Dick Valentine's ramblings about fire and war on the dancefloor are the focal point, they serve as MC'ing here

Like I mumbled I think it's a good shift -- they sound better as contrast here and the music is just much better (this must somehow tie in to the fact that the only E6 song I'll rate is "Synthesizer").

One drumloop, two Kate Bush samples and lots of deep, deep bass. It all seems so simple.

:-)

Thanks, Siegbran!

I've been thinking a lot about this song lately.

"The Guardian called the track "irresistible" due to its "sparse orchestral samples and snaking chorus"

https://web.archive.org/web/20090511190613/http://www.blender.com/lists/68125/500-greatest-songs-since-you-were-born-451-500.html?p=11

"
The lyrics and beat came together early. Dr. Dre roughed out a hypnotic track with stark keyboard jabs and a bassline by studio musician Mike Elizondo. 50 dropped his lyrics, and Dre mixed in his magic with spare, judicious doses: brighter stabs in the chorus, the tense guitar strum that enters midway through—”those little things here and there really brought it to life,” Rosenberg recalls. Smuggling state-of-the-art violence and sexism into a bouncy TRL-rocking package, the song became a No. 1 pop hit and helped sell 812,000 albums in four days, surpassing every other debut since SoundScan started keeping track in 1991. It was the theme song for a super-hardcore MC, or a universal soldier (the video referenced the Van Damme vehicle of the same name, when gym-buff 50 enters the top of frame upside down)."