Sarah McLachlan - World On Fire/Stupid
Arista Records
Catalogue Number: WORLD12
Well I'm sure you have to have at least heard of Sarah McLachlan, possibly one of the
finest vocal talents in recent years. Her voice featured on Delerium - Silence which
will always be known as a complete classic by trance fans everywhere and now we have
this new double-sider released under her own which comes with some quality remix work
by Junkie XL and Hyper.
Onto the promo vinyl and you get the following:
A1) World On Fire (Junkie XL Mix)
B1) Stupid (Hyper Remix)
Starting out with World On Fire, this starts with an echoing percussion loop which is
joined by a haunting vocal pad behind. More layers of pads build then quickly drop away
to a stunning acoustic guitar riff and the vocal begins and oh dear lord what a vocal.
We're talking every hair standing up on your entire body and then a nice kick drum drops
in behind the vocal and the tune really kicks in and gets the head nodding. A warm driving
bassline kicks in alongside the beat and the tune begins to build with additional pianos
and more guitar chords which give this a really different vibe to pretty much anything.
The drops with the guitars and pianos are nothing short of amazing and this is going to
be one of those tunes which I can see Sasha dropping at 6am in Ibiza this year as the sun
is just coming up over the Horizon. Have I made this clear yet? - this is one of the best
vocal prog trance tunes I've EVER EVER heard by some way, the haunting vocal is lush, the
production is stunning and the tune is sure to be loved by pretty much everyone. It's also
at a decent tempo (around the 136 mark) so that you can pitch it up a couple of BPM and
begin a peaktime trance set with it and the opening does make it the perfect set starter.
At just over 12 minutes long, this really is an epic masterpiece.
Over onto the B side and we get the Hyper remix of 'Stupid'. Now Hyper has been doing some
good work lately on the remix front and I know I was especially impressed with his remix
of PVD when Muzik dropped it at Baby Passion a few weeks ago. This begins with a filtered
break with some ethnic style chords soon to be joined by more layers of percussion and
guitars and then the tough kick drops in and kicks up the beat. Vocal snippets of 'Everything
changes.....everything falls apart' from Sarah make this a moody little number as a warm
bassline with little squelchy acidy synths dropping in the background really make this
a quality little breaks track. The drop at 2:40 or so kicks up the mood as Sarah delivers
one of her typical haunting vocals and then the break kicks back in with a tinkly quitar
riff over the top. Very very nice.
In summary, I'll say it again I think. BUY THIS TUNE IMMEDIATELY - the B side although still
being very nice, is not exactly my thing but I can see the breaks guys loving it. I'm
just in awe over the A side where Junkie XL moves on from his dark and moody work on tracks
such as Dirty Stick Floors and delivers an acoustic prog trance workout that is sure to be
hammered across the board. This is another classic in the making and you're absolutely certain
to be hearing this as a set opener from loads of DJs over the next few months. Miss this one
at your peril.
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Review by Yaz
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