If you're a Dutch production duo that's spent the last year at the top of your game, winning a gigantic hoard of fans and the love and adoration of critics online, what do you do next? Why, you take a classic dance track and throw your own spin on it, of course. Oh, and then you put it up for free download. Just because. That's exactly what producers Vicetone have just done with their latest release, a reworking of Tony Igy's classic, Astronomia.
Vicetone have been one of my absolute favourite artists of recent times, but it would be fair to say that they have a comfort zone, and stay well within it. It's heartening, then, to see them doing something a bit unexpected and different to their usual output - though it's definitely still them. Read on to find out what's changed, and to compare this new release to the original.
It's easy to see why they chose to update Astronomia - the original track, untouched by their hands, actually plays to a lot of their strengths already. It drops. Then it builds up. Then it drops again, harder. Repeat. This is the format that an awful lot of Vicetone's tracks take, and it's a format that works really well and has proven successful for them, able to produce unmatched euphoric highs.
Given that the original track already does this, though, what have Vicetone actually added to the mix? Well... not an awful lot. Wait, no, come back! In some instances it would be easy to dismiss that as being lazy, but in this case it actually just demonstrates an acute awareness of the strengths and popularity of the original. They haven't added a lot because they didn't need to. Hell, the first drop is basically exactly the same, albeit in a different key. Why bother doing it at all then? Well, I suppose that's a slightly more pertinent question, and fans of the original will probably find themselves wondering just that.
Having said that, they have changed a fair amount of it.
What Vicetone have managed to do is to turn a classic trance track into a festival-ready dance number, and they've actually mostly achieved this by removing a lot of things. The cheesy, trancy vocal samples? Gone. The half tempo beat after the breakdown? Gone. A lot of the stuff in the breakdown itself? Gone. But for what it is they're trying to achieve with Astronomia 2014, that's not a detrimental thing at all, as it allows them to focus on the parts of the original that they believe really matter, and add their slick, high quality production to them to give a modern take on a classic.
They've changed the key to what I would describe as a more 'modern' sounding one that would better fit with many of today's productions. They've given the main synth a lick of paint to make it feel higher in quality, double-tracking it later to add a sense of scale for a modern audience, and removing some of the dodgy reverb and other effects from the original. Overall, it just feels like a tighter track - going back to the original after this, you realise that it's aged somewhat, and this new release in essence turns back the clock and gives it a new lease of life.
Astronomia 2014 is unlikely to convert diehard fans of the original. After all, why fix something that isn't really broken. Nevertheless, despite minimal changes to the structure and content, the production values are higher, and it certainly doesn't feel like a waste of time. Did we need a new version of Astronomia? No. Will I keep listening to it anyway? Yes.
BONUS: Hear Tony Igy's original track below.
The Octopus's Rating: 6/8
Release Details:
Name: Astronomia 2014
Artist: Vicetone & Tony Igy
Label: N/A
Release Date: 9 July [OUT NOW]
Purchase: Free Download. Click Here. (Requires Facebook like).
Writer, musician, and all-round top guy. I set up Excited Octopus. Currently, I'm on a one man team. It gets lonely sometimes. But I don't mind, because I love you all.
0 comments:
Post a Comment