Nish/ Alphazone/ Remo-Con/ Monsun
» Harderground EP 9
Reviewed by Dean Zone
/ Submitted 06-09-07 23:15
Label: Doof Doof Trax
Format: CD-R
Genre: Hard Trance
Nish may be a name not known to many clubbers, in the UK at least. But he is probably Japans second biggest hard dance DJ/Producer after Yoji Biomehanika.
He first came to my attention a few years ago with a release on One Inch Records, the fantastic Acidy Overdrive and Bliss. Both got many spins on my turntables and now thanks to this remix package out on Doof Doof (got to be the best label name, ever!) you can too!
Nish - Sagittarius (Alphazone remix)
After a break of far too long, Alphazone, the undisputed kings of hard trance, return with a stomping remix.
Ok so I have never heard the original, but quite frankly I don’t care.
Starting with a typically deep kick drum and some mental sounding distorted guitar chords, Alphazone swiftly get their groove on.
Sweet sounding acid mixes with a distorted, slightly tech heavy bass, which leads into your more typical Alphazone style intro riffs.
It’s nice to hear a breakdown that is built around a break beat section for a change, as a lot of tunes seem to tack them on because they sound “cool”. Here the break wouldn’t be the same without it.
Sweeping, long notes summon a very UK Hard Trance sounding riff, but I won’t hold that against them as pretty much all of Alphazones stuff is perfect crossover fodder.
Driving and uplifting. Well worth a look.
7/10
Nish - Blue Sunshine (Remo-Con Remix)
The original Nish – Blue Sunshine was probably one of my biggest tunes of the last 12 months. As Pete Tong would say, it was a “If all else fails” tune, guaranteed to get people on the floor as soon as the riff dropped.
A hard act to follow? Yes, it is. But that’s no excuse for the monstrosity that this tune is.
Remo-Con has made some corkers in the past, most notably G-Sigh and Streams, both out on Yoji' Biomehanika's HellHouse label.
However, this remix is the very meaning of the word “gash”.
The poorly constructed intro was a bad start, followed by background noises and percussion that you would normally find in dirty Electro. The bass is ripped from Electro too. Infact, this is pretty much an electro tune that sounds like it was made on a PlayStation, just much faster.
But then I heard what he had done to the riff.
What was once the most uplifting riff since the Ferry Corsten remix of Adagio for Strings has been turned into what sounds like randomly hitting a keyboard.
Remo-Con have just completely warped it into a weak, shoddy and woeful sounding mess.
I’m all for trying different sounds, but this is barley audible. I'm serisouly surprised that Dave Joy has but this out on any of his labels as I have always respected him as a DJ, producer and label manager.
Who knows, in 10 years time Remo-Con might be considered a visionary who was way ahead of the times with this track.
But I sincerely hope not.
Awful.
*right click, delete*
3/10
Nish - Bliss (Monsun Remix)
My confidence in the Doof Doof label severely diminished, I pushed on with my final tune, the Monsun remix of Bliss.
I can safely say I have never been so grateful to hear a standard 4x4 beat at the start of a track in my life. Words can’t describe how relieved I was.
A much welcomed return to normality, the Monsun remix quickly established itself as the best tune in this package.
The intro to this track is awesome, starting with a sub bass and one layer of percussion, it seamlessly builds layer upon layer until the breakdown. The echoed main synth sounds excellent, and as the tune began to break down properlly I knew that this was going to be much better than the previous track.
The breakdown lays host to a lush pad that glides effortlessly, followed by a bongo sequence that actually works really well. A loud, single kick later, and the synth get chopped into a riff that sounds even better. Some nice distortion later and it kicks off again, although not with the amount of energy I expected.
The gorgeous pad returns shortly after the main drop, just to add to proceedings a little. The outro sequence is maybe a little short, but who cares when the rest of the track is this good?
8/10
Rating: 
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