Sun Decade feat. Emma Hewitt - Lasting Light [REVIEW]

By Rossco, posted March 02, 2010

Ronski Speed, Emma Hewitt, Jorn van Deynhoven AND Duderstadt on the one release?! Rossco has a solid listen and gives his opinion.

Ronski Speed and Ralf Mullar (aka Sonorous, older Trance fans will have fond memories his track, Protonic) have created some huge anthems such as 2002’s I’m Alone, under the Sun Decade name, a name that has been popping up recently on remix duties for Euphonic Records.

Euphonic’s third release of 2010 brings the Sun Decade name to the forefront of this package, with an original vocal production titled Lasting Light. A very solid remix package indeed, especially when you weigh up the original from Ronski (we are unsure as to whether Ralf is still involved in Sun Decade at this stage), including some sublime vocals from Australian vocalist Emma Hewitt, as well as remixes from Duderstadt, and man of the moment, Jorn Van Deynhoven. The full package contains original, dub, and radio versions of each mix. So lets have a look through the three vocal mixes (as the dub mixes are the same, sans major vocals), and see how they go.

Ronski Speed has been around for quite some time now, and he has more than earned his place in the global dance music scene through top notch productions and remixes, but if you have heard any of Ronski Speed’s tracks from the past year or two you might wish to decide whether you liked those (and whether you need another one) before reading the next paragraph or three. Frankly, I wasn’t surprised by his track. Whilst there were some good ideas presented, there wasn’t anything we haven’t heard before from him (or other producers). I will say that the track MAY be well suited to bring a DJ set out of the early parts, full of progressive and repetitive grooves, with Hewitt’s vocals emerging from the intro section to give a bit more drive to the track, and help it step up to the next level. At the same time, though, I can’t help but shake the feeling that this track is suffering from what I can only describe as an identity crisis. Let me explain.

The breakdown is introduced by simply fading out all the percussion and bassline and some pads starting up. Not one of the ideas already presented are left, and the pads bear no resemblance to anything that has been introduced up until this point. That aside, the main vocal comes in after a couple of bars, supplemented by some piano-based plucks in the background. Whilst the vocals move to a non-phonetic form, an arpeggiated lead builds out of the pads to bring us to the climax of the track.

This is, unfortunately, where everything that has been worked for in the breakdown falls apart. You see, the beat coming back in does two things that are hard to ignore. It makes your realise how thin the breakdown really was. To me, Ronski is trying hard to provide a danceable track, which he does with the intro and body of this track, but it seems he is also trying to present a big room Trance track that will get hands in the air, which he also does with the breakdown. It is in combining both of these after the breakdown, however, where the conflicts that are present between the two parts rear their heads. The bassline that had been such a focus point before the breakdown, the vocals that were present towards the end of the breakdown, the pads and the piano melody, as well as the arp lead are ALL fighting for focus, and they each suffer for this whilst as a whole not quite fitting together in a single cohesive arrangement. I just cant get past the feeling that Ronski didn’t quite know what to do with this track and so he simply stuck the two ideas together as best he could, not wanting to ditch any ideas that he had along the way.

So how do Duderstadt and Jorn Van Deynhoven fare alongside this original?

Much better, as they each picked one side, and stuck with it.

Duderstadt are also a duo who i had become very wary of approximately a year ago, as they were hanging precariously above my brain’s very own pit of “been there before” where they would join the ranks of Cosmic Gate and other producers who have had a very similar style and sound, production after production for a period of time. The ones that cause you to start to listen to their latest release until you hear the same sounds, so you very briefly skim through to confirm your suspicions before moving on.

Fortunately, they have managed to bring a fresh sound with their remix, whilst still being a Duderstadt production. The first thing that jumps out at me, literally, is the quality of production present. Each sound pops out of the speakers with warmth and character that give the track an aural animation that you generally don’t hear with a lot of tracks. Instantly, the track is pleasurable to listen to, even if you don’t like the track itself. As paradoxical as that sounds, it is something that you will realise as soon as you hear it, in any track. One of those songs that you listen to over and over again because of the way it makes your ears feel, BEFORE the sound registers in your brain. Every single element has movement and space. You can almost SEE all the parts bouncing around in front of you.

The breakdown takes a completely opposite start to what Ronski has done with the original, by simply removing the percussion and leaving behind all the other elements. This is almost genius in its simplicity, as it allows the track to continue to provide a cohesive groove and danceability, whilst simultaneously allowing room for the new elements of the breakdown to relieve the percussion and keep a similar size and fullness across the entire production.

How do Duderstadt approach the rest of the breakdown? They take the approach of filling the spectrum with pads following a previous chord progression, whilst using the reverb of the vocals to provide more dimensions, topped of with the incredible use of delaying just the sibilance of each part of the vocals to provide the extra atmospheric elements, that are still in a similar style to the actual vocals themselves. Whilst you are lost exploring all these perfectly formed parts, some chordal pads are emerging from behind to catch you unaware until it’s too late, and you are presented with a wall of sound that gives an energy betraying the tracks tempo and a feel that is much greater than the sum of its parts. I haven’t greatly mentioned the use of the vocals in this remix, apart from the breakdown, as they are integrated in to the various parts of the production so well that you forget that they are actually vocals at some point. It simply doesn’t feel like a “vocal track”.

It might seem like i am gushing, but I’ll be blatantly honest with you: The simplicity of this remix, and the ease at which is it presented, lies nothing short of amazing. I have struggled with how to best describe this track, and I feel that I have still fallen short of the mark. This is a piece of music that has been crafted so precisely that whilst it includes an intro and outro generally created to allow DJs to mix it into and out of other tracks, it provides a platform to collect the listener from whatever situation they are in, sweep them off their feet, take them on a wild adventure, and then gently rest them back where they started, leaving no physical evidence that anything had even happened. This remix does almost perfectly, in less than eight minutes, what most DJs strive to do through careful programming of lengthy sets.

So how does Jorn Van Deynhoven follow up from this?

Well, Jorn Van Deynhoven takes the opposite direction to Duderstadt. Whilst they focussed on the danceability of the track, stripping it back to use only the most important and relevant parts, Jorn beefs up the BPM, and throws down a monster of a remix aimed squarely at the middle of the dancefloor, with nothing less than peak time set on his alarm clock.

Jorn’s profile has blown up worldwide in the last few months. His remix of Ram’s RAMsterdam has found its way through almost every single mixer owned by a Trance DJ, and he also brought along a mix of Andain’s Beautiful Things that proved that he is much more than a one trick pony.

Just like his career so far, Jorn’s remix wastes no time. At only one minute in, this track is already well past many other similar track’s climaxes. SOLID sub-bass, driving percussion and some subtle, but effective atmospheric sounds deliver what i have only just realised was a major missing component of Ronski’s original: Anticipation. During Ronski’s mix, I just wasn’t that interested in knowing what was coming up. It didn’t provide me with any reason to be. I went in to it with a clear head, knowing i was going to be writing this review, but it very quickly left me wanting to hit the next button. Joorn’s mix is the exact opposite. there are sections where i was left with a thriller-movie type level of anxiousness, almost not being able to wait to hear where the track leads.

Towards the 2:30 mark, after taking a short break purely to let us catch our breath, the percussion diverts to a more minimal path, which allows the track to show off one of its secret weapons. A huge solid room-engulfing kick drum that could almost create a track on its own. This, like the Duderstadt mix, also allows the track to make way for the incoming breakdown without dropping too much energy in one go.

The track strips itself right back to a single swirling pad with a sample-and-hold modulated arp that leads into the atmospheric non-phonetic vocal sample. This, in turn, allows for the introduction of the huge string and pad section that devours almost the entire audio spectrum. The massive riff that rises out of this alongside the filtered kick drives the intensity notch up to 11 before slamming the entire track back together for what is, for me at least, a text book definition of Big Room Trance.

Like Duderstadt, this track has been constructed very well. There is a fullness, and cohesion about the entire track. Everything feels like it is meant to be there. It’s very hard to pick out how many layers are in each sound, because you cant decide what part of the track each layer belongs to. This is what Trance is all about, and these two remixes have successfully provided what i feel Ronski failed to do with his original.

Lasting Light is out now at most online stores and iTunes!