Often regarded as one of the most important, iconic pieces of Vocal Trance, the mighty force of John O’Callaghan stuck gold when he relinquished his vocal single of Big Sky in 2007, which chiefly featured the marvelous vocals of Audrey Gallagher. Few tracks can measure up to the quality that Big Sky contains, as the clarity of vocals, allegorical connotations and overall flow of the piece has kept it alive for many long years. Since then, there have been a plethora of various remixes to tweak the Original for a more club friendly setting, with notable examples including Ben Gold‘s Festival Remix, Signum vs. RAM‘s Remix and a Techno ‘Deconstruction Mix’ by none other than John O’Callaghan‘s counter alias, JOC. Today, the streak of remixes continues through 2014, as the Sheffield wonder that is Adam Ellis takes over with his unique Uplifting infusion of older and newer styles. As opposed to his explosive 2013 year with Napalm Poet and Mandarine, Ellis has been rather quiet as of late, opting to work on advanced, precision-based production skills and tackle his back catalog of unfinished drafts. What started out as a bootleg for Big Sky has finally earned the nod of approval by Armada and after many long months of hearing it under the recent sets of Bryan Kearney and Sneijder, we will soon recieve the full release to enjoy time and time again.
http://youtu.be/fEFeUlwk5jc
The most prominent feature of Big Sky is incredulous amount of polish and quality that’s strewn throughout Ellis‘s remix. Every texture, color and harmony is keenly engineered to perfection and the balance of its thorny orchestration is second to none. This track is particularly tricky to rework because the vocals are the most important element in the entire track, but he makes sure to leave plenty of space for Audrey‘s lyrics while injecting some throat-throttling power into vicious, arm shattering basslines. While integrating forward thinking acid lines and energy driven prerogatives, the track still manages to revitalize the melodies of old with a glorious and angelic melody that fuses together both current Uplifting tactics and nostalgic elements into a cheerful, yet emotionally powerful lead. This remix certainly shows a large jump in productional prowess for Ellis and it seems that his abilities are exponentially improving. If he continues on this path, we can expect even greater things from him in the future and might eventually become the successor of JOC & Kearney when they make the decision to retire in the following decades to come. At the very least, we can be rest assured that Trance is in a very good place now and steps are carefully being taken to extend the life of this great genre of music.
Adam Ellis‘ stellar remix of John O’Callaghan‘s Big Sky will be available on Armind via Beatport this Friday, so make sure you mark this release in your calenders, Trance fans!
Keep the music alive. -Q
