This week was about average with a decent smattering of good tracks and bad ones. However, we couldn’t go without discussing the first official remix of Smash Mouth’s timeless classic, “All Star“. We’ll also touch on the updated New World Sound project, check in on Main Circus, and look at a few STMPD releases among others. As always, we’ll be compiling a short recap of notable tracks that we didn’t have time to cover during the previous week. We hope you enjoy our selection and if you have any tracks you’d like to see here, please feel free to post your suggestions in the comments!
Smash Mouth – All Stars (Breathe Carolina Remix)
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After twenty years, the first official remix of “All Star” comes from Breathe Carolina. This made news even through mainstream outlets like Vox, MTV, and Billboard to name a few. They heaped on the praise calling it a “legitimate banger,” “a truly unique tropical house remix “ and “it’s a slapper, folks!” Smash Mouth even said in an official statement, “We are very excited to have such a great artist like Breathe Carolina create this very fresh and inspiring official remix for us.”
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
It is an absolute shame that somehow, Breathe Carolina received the green light to blaspheme all over this meme-taculous track. Basically, all they did is take the whistling and turn that to a drop and add an EDM percussion underneath the entirety. Of all the prolific remixers out there like R3HAB, Steff Da Campo, or Retrovision, they picked the most vanilla flavor to cash in on this in 2019.
Honestly, it’s not a horrible rendition, in fact it’s perfectly streamable but we’re just disappointed that it added nothing new. This should have been called a remaster and left at that.
52/100
Armin van Buuren & Avian Grays – Something Real (feat. Jordan Shaw) (Main Circus Remix)
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It seems we should expect a Remix EP with every one of Armin’s releases. Everyone had their preferences in this pack, but I wanted to talk about the intriguing group, Main Circus. I enjoyed their first release, “Rock the Drum” very much and it gave me hope for a promising project, however I’ve been disappointed by every release and remix up till this one. They went back and played to their strengths of mixing simplicity with a clean and heavy percussion set. Despite this, the track feels a bit empty, but it’s as close as they’ve got to their best work since the beginning.
68/100
John Christian & Juliette Claire – Club Bizarre (Don Diablo Edit)
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When the original version came out, I felt that it was such an odd departure from John Christian’s uniquely heavy style. The drop was pretty typical pop-house/Brazilian Bass to emphasize the extremely catchy vocals. This edit feels like what the original should have been. Its percussion is fresh, the swing adds a lot of energy, and the overall production is exceptional. The vocals are even better due to a slight reprocessing to give it a futuristic feel. It reminded me slightly of the new Magnificence remix style seen in “Switch” and “Mood” with the way Don handled the bass. But overall, this is one of the freshest things from Hexagon in months.
86/100
Loopers & Seth Hills – Out Of Control
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I hadn’t really taken note of this till now, but STMPD seems to focus on solo releases more than collaborations. The other one that comes to mind is Blinders and TV Noise teaming up for “Fire” which was an excellent combination of both of their sounds. “Out of Control” accomplishes a similar feat, blending tracks from Loopers like “Everything Goes Black” along with “Whisper” from Seth Hills. The call and response in the drop plays along well to this joint venture, allowing each to highlight what they brought to the table. The breakdowns seemed to be mostly influenced by Loopers since it features the relentless assault of dissonant noise that his other tracks have. Despite this being a good representation of each of their sounds, I can’t help but draw a comparison to a track from Jonas Aden and Mesto, “Your Melody” which utilizes a similar percussion set and hollow-sounding lead along with the same trans effect. At any rate, it’s still a fun drop marred by a hard-to-tolerate set of breakdowns.
71/100
SWACQ – No Strings Attached
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It’s incredible to see how producers can take a single loop and make a full track out of it. SWACQ either found or made a decent violin play a descending scale and now we have “No Strings Attached.” Does it create an interesting atmosphere? Sure, there’s certainly a reason that Garrix and many other DJs have pushed this high up the 1001 Tracklist charts. There’s also a nice throwback section reminiscent of deadmau5 in the second (and only) breakdown. For the drops, it seems to take a few notes from Zonderling and one of the tracks he inspired, “Top of the World” by Foxa which also uses a descending bassy scale. I imagine this will continue to be played out by DJs but I wouldn’t put money on this entering the annals of EDM classics.
64/100
BIJOU & ANGELZ – FLEX (feat. Chetta)
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For bass house fans, seeing these two names team up for an original track should certainly generate a bit of excitement. Let me start off by saying I would have liked it if Chetta’s vocals had been used more throughout the track since most of it sounds pretty basic and bare. As an ANGELZ fan, I was also disappointed to not hear his signature vocal sample or any of his unique basswork. The drop is well-made but a bit lackluster with its descending chromatic melody. Props to them for switching things up a tad for the second drop, but honestly it wasn’t any better. Here’s to hoping for a remix pack because the vocals are catching but the framing by BIJOU & ANGELZ is just ultimately boring.
59/100
New World Sound – High For This
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After being silent for around two years, New World Sound has reemerged with a few new singles over the past few months, the latest of which is “High For This” which follows the melodic, midtempo pop stuff they’ve already put out. If I had to describe their new sound in a word, it’d be “beautiful.” It makes me want to close my eyes and fall into the world NWS has created in each of these three tracks. I can’t quite figure out who’s doing the vocals on their latest track as no one is credited on Spotify and the ones in “Love from Coco” were certainly an original derivation from O.T. Genasis’s track. Regardless, they’re airy, soothing, and stunning. The accompanying instrumental are equally gorgeous and atmospheric. It’s so full of soul and emotion to make you truly feel something. This is certainly a far cry from “Flute,” but you know what? I’m here for it.
85/100
FineRefined – Break The Floor
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This one required a bit of reflection in order to determine its merits and flaws. On the one hand, the drop is very fresh with exceptional sound design to highlight each element. On the other hand, the loops used in the breakdown don’t sound cohesive, resulting in an amalgamation of sound which simply serves to keep the four on the floor beat going without actually making me want to dance or move. “Break the Floor” feels a bit like those tracks that producers put out to highlight their sample pack. It caught my attention for the unique sounds but failed to follow through on its promising drop.
66/100
Thykier – The Drum
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Released as the titular track of his Riotville EP, Thykier really took his production up a notch with “The Drum” and accompanying track, “Freaky.” It features two different breakdowns and two different drops which is always a plus. The second breakdown doesn’t quite hold my attention but the sound design is slightly interesting with the moving bassline. The second drop also doesn’t quite ramp up the energy enough for the build it got. If it had a different first eight measures, could have been a different story. But for now, it’s just an above average bass house track worth checking out at least once along with its partner.
74/100
We hope you enjoyed our recap of selected songs from last week. If there is a song that you felt should have been on here, be sure to leave it in the comments below and we’ll do our best to give our take on it. Certain songs were not included because they will be covered in more detail in the following days so make sure you’re following our social media pages to see all of our latest posts!
This recap was provided by The QR Network which is a site for interviews with producers and DJs. Check out their interviews with Todd Helder, Justin Mylo, Krimsonn, Wasback, Illuminize, and Jaak.
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