• Can we stop remixing Holocaust psalms?
• Appears to cash in on trending keyword and success of Marnik’s version.
• Heavy doubts about its flat personality
Do you know which review of us has been read the most in 2018? My negative take on “Gam Gam” from the Italians Marnik and SMACK, the guys who Photoshopped themselves on a Maurice West set to fake that they are making live exhibitions. Despite being a catchy tune, I disclosed my doubts about using a Holocaust symbol, a sacred Hebraic psalm, for an EDM track. Plus, the cover made it look like a Halloween song, and in my opinion, this was extremely disrespectful.
Many people like Gabry Ponte and DJs From Mars has reworked it in the past, and this brought me to the conclusion that it’s a popular choice in Italian EDM. The Marnik tune last year, got a huge success with more than 25 million streams on YouTube alone.
If you look up the Google trends and compare the word “Gam Gam” to something like “big room” and “Martin Garrix,” “Gam Gam” is over four times as popular of a search term! I have this feeling that Luca Testa was looking at the same data when preparing this release.
For a bit of perspective, I’m not a fan of the way Luca Testa conducts his career. His bots are everywhere on Instagram and the fact that he doesn’t have a real signature style gives me pause. He has been pushing a soft hardstyle structure that we have seen a couple of times on Revealed, and I guess that it’s been working for him lately.
Back to the track at hand, “Gam Gam” is simple: Testa picked the vocal loop, added his standard hardstyle structure, reused the same melody and voilà – release done. There isn’t anything that I consider interesting, apart from that annoying sensation that me and him are giving space to this song only because there’s a trending keyword.
If you’re a fan of the melody despite its historical backdrop, this version is worth checking out for yourself. Technically, it’s a good release despite its flat personality.
At the end of the day, Luca Testa’s version is basically a soft hardstyle flip of another successful release. It’s a shame to see Revealed jumping on yet another trend, but it’s not surprising given their entirely lackluster release of “Bella Ciao” last year. One can only hope that “Gam Gam” doesn’t become the next track that every producer feels compelled to remix given its particularly painful origins.
What do you think?
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