Elude - Purgatory
http://www.sixthirty.com/
Catalogue Number: SXTH004
Having originally been signed to the legendary 'Pumpin Choons' back in 2004, Purgatory sadly missed out on the first train to releasedom back when it was first around. Thankfully the good news is that London trance bod Ian Betts has recently snapped it up & scheduled it for a proper release on his Six:Thirty label sometime in April. The bad news? The old John o'Callaghan remix, despite being by far the best of the lot in my view, has not been included. A pity, considering it was my personal 3rd favourite track of 2004! Nonetheless we have two new mixes available...
The original begins with a beatless cinematic opening, teasing you with bits of the beat, bassline & synth stabs. It becomes apparent the track was designed to work well as a set opener, yet also builds gradually & subtley from the first beat on 1:15, making it ideal for mixing into aswell. The build up to the break is pretty basic and has a kind of dated 99-ish feel, featuring two lead synths (the first of which is fantastic, reminding me of an old tune i can't put my finger on) battling it out in quite a grand fashion. The relatively minimal feel is carried on into the break, making way for a very retro-sounding riff and a subtle pad backing it up. As the chordchanges get introduced, the huge-sounding lead from the intro returns & slowly evolves into a soaring main melody that will have many an epic trance fan reaching for the air. A small breakbeat section follows before the peak which in theory should sound good, but for some reason the main lead distorts slightly during it... the only real negative point I can make about the track.
Despite the original still sounding solid, half of the Elude duo Luke Terry obviously felt it needed a re-rub from his own fair hands before being put out properly, so chips in with a 2006 remake. It follows quite a different approach to the original for the first half of the duration, with the original main leads being ditched in exchange for a less in-your-face array of synthy sounds. After teasing the listener with a couple of chord changes, the track ploughs down into quite a bizarre breakdown, fading out to silence before reintroducing the backing synths from the intro. The tune's main melodic elements are completely withheld until the beat kicks back in after the buildup, making for quite an unexpected surprise at the peak... certainly an intresting twist to the typical trance formula. The end of the peak section is equally as abrupt, dropping out into another unorthodox-sounding breakdown before the mixout period is introduced.
Label boss Ian Betts's new remix is actually track 1 on the release, however in my view is by far the weakest of the bunch. The original & Luke Terry mixes both offered interesting quirks that made them stand out nicely (albeit modestly) from the norm, however this offers little more than a bog standard generic translation into Ian's style without any twists or surprises. If you're familiar with his other recent productions then I'd go as far as saying this one isn't even worth the listen.
So ignoring the Betts remix, this is quite worthy of a purchase. The original sounds like it could have been made back in 1999 (which in this day & age actually sounds quite refreshing) and Luke Terry's update offers a fresh new makeover complete with a couple of neat twists, for those who prefer a more recent feel.
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Rating : 
Review by rj
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