• Sweet, delicate vocal sample
• Hard-Psy vs. Melodic Hardstyle
• Arduous challenge, yet well-schemed
I’ve been frankly discontented by “Mona Lisa“, a commercial collaboration between Will Sparks and Lost Boy, and I was extremely curious about Toneshifterz’s twist on it. He’s one of the most affluent Hardstyle artists and considering that he’s working on a chill and laid-back production, the task demanded finesse.
Will Sparks, as already acquainted previous week in the “Tricky Tricky” review, is one of the renowned personages of Melbourne Bounce. Peculiarly, with “Mona Lisa”, he attempted a pop experiment, and as expected, it didn’t completely convince me. I prefer the vocal, but the melody was lacking something firsthand.
Toneshifterz introduced what I thought was amiss: some sentimental vibes with the pianoforte. The breakdown seems even vacuous than before, with a calmer piano (similar to “Children“) and some spatial reverb, but compare the two versions! The re-work emanates way more feelings and vibrancy and serves as a bridge for the anti-climactic drop. Hard-Psy in the first segment, melodic Hardstyle in the second… Depending on your tastes and inclinations, pick your favourite. Personally, I second that the canorous approach was smoother and a suave way to finish the remix. The first transition, instead, was pretty harsh and this influenced my experience.
Toneshifterz worked efficacious-ly over a composition whose vocal wasn’t really fitting with his genre: not a facile work. The anti-climactic drop is a necessity here but the overall result is entertaining and meticulously created.
What do you think?
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