Reflekt Featuring Delline Bass – Need to feel loved
Positiva Records
Catalogue Number: CDTIVDJ213
This track by now needs no prologue whatsoever, but in the course of my reviewing duties
I shall endeavour to enlighten those unaware of it’s roots. Former Radio1 DJ Seb Fontaine
has teamed up with Jay P to create the years most anticipated track which is based primarily
around the epic strings from the film Road to Perdition. The track along with it’s huge
Thrillseekers remix has been getting plays for months on end from the likes of Pete Tong,
Judge Jules, Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk, Armin Van Buuren et al. The list is near endless.
The release has been put back time and time again, but finally February looks to be the
date when this will finally be unleashed to the record buying public.
01. Radio Edit
02. 12” Club mix>br>
03. Seb Fontaine And Jay P’s Type Remix
04. Thrillseekers remix
05. Fuzzy Hair Vocal Mix
06. Horizontal Mix
12” Club mix
The Radio Edit is based on this particular remix, so I won’t review them as separate tracks. Those
who are merely familiar with the Thrillseekers remix of this tune will be surprised to hear this mix.
It’s bumpy, and chunky, and importantly, housey. Yet this is where it all started. Minimal beats
are masked with a repetitive bassline of a similarly minimal nature, creating a really infectious
feel. The thinking behind it must be to add an emphasis to the gorgeous strings which have been rather
nicely sampled from Road to Perdition as I mentioned earlier. The vocals over time from Delline
have grown on many, and they’re definitely worthy of a place within the track, without them there’d
be little going on. Talking in the sense that over recent years we’ve seen vocals placed unnecessarily
onto instrumentals for commercial pulling power, these on reflection (no pun intended) have a deep
(if at times appearing on the surface simplistic) feeling to them. On the whole it’s a minimal journey
which will no doubt charm it’s way into your head, melancholic, but classy. This will be the mix you’ll
hear on the radio, and it deserves to do well.
Seb Fontaine And Jay P’s Type Remix
This package definitely caters for all and the genre’s are nicely covered. Seb and Jay have taken it
upon themselves to remix their own track and the Type remix is the result. The rhythm is one of a
more upbeat nature, with an acoustic snare which at times feels a little flat curiously placed in the
midst of on the whole a retro sounding drum track. Acoustic is perhaps the right word to sum up this
remix, from percussion to the bass guitar. The synths used are sharp and fuzzy and I’m really not
convinced by this version at all. The vocals remain but the strings are gone, and what a difference
that makes. It highlights the amount the track relies upon them, and in there absence there is a dark
void which it seems this particular interpretation struggles to fill.
Thrillseekers remix
Moving onto the money track now, this is the golden version which makes this package what it is in
the eyes of trance fans. This is Steve Helstrip’s finest work arguably since Synaesthesia. Like the
original this relies so much on those strings, I know I keep going on about them, but they are lush
and so prominent to the tune. Aside from the vocal and yes, those strings there isn’t a lot here.
That is the beauty though and a less is more ethos has been applied, and is pulled off to the extent
that is has been hailed as many people’s track of the year, ironic that it isn’t officially even out
til February of 2005. Fast becoming one of the most noticeable tracks in any trance set from the first
few bars and the first signs of the pounding bass, this will undoubtedly be thrashed on New Years Eve.
A definite contender for midnight track it would seem. There’s little that I can say about a track
which has become as big as this, we all know it, and we all love it. (Well most of us anyway) Pure bliss.
Fuzzy Hair Vocal Mix
With the Fuzzy Hair Vocal mix we’re back onto a funky house tip, which is another attempt at pulling
in the different styles, moving away from the proggier original. A simplistic beat intro of around
a minute take us quickly to a mysteriously dark break, which features mainly the vocal and an eerie
synth which sounds like a swarm of angry bees, before we drop into the action and the nature of the
name of this mix becomes apparent. I really can’t think of a better word than fuzzy to describe the
synth, from a house perspective it all sounds really good, the vocal works reasonably well out of
it’s safer territory of melancholy, we have a generally far more uplifting feel in effect here.
Something for the house djs who are bored of playing the original to drop, it adds another alternative
dimension to the package, and isn’t too bad at all.
Horizontal mix
Finally we move to the Horizontal mix which comes courtesy of Nick Carter and Josh Powell. They have
crafted what the track screamed out for, a chilled, down tempo version. The lush Rhodes and subtle
almost trip-hop-esque beats wrap their warm arms around Delline’s emotive vocal. The ambience and
overall atmosphere here is great, from the reverse guitar stabs, to the acoustic guitar strums,
everything hear just seems right, and when the strings finally take their place in the backdrop you
can close your eyes and drift away. One of the best down tempo tracks I’ve heard in a long time,
they usually seem pretty pointless, but the vocal and the strings were made to be heard like this. A
fitting inclusion and a wonderful package.
To sum up, this is and will be one of the biggest dance records of recent times, it will have annoyed
many people at the length of time it’s taken to become available on a wider scale, and whilst copies
sell for ridiculous money until February, fear not of being bored, because the bevy of remixes on
show here will keep the fire burning for a long time to come yet.
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Review by Xalno
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