Artist: Ambrozia
Title: Cox EP
Label: 19 Box Recordings
By: Simon Jones | 15 August 2003
Tracklist:

• A: It's U (Perc Mix)
• B: Lovely Lovely Lovely (Switchshift Mix)

Ambrozia "Cox EP"

Ambrozia is the downtempo project of Japense DJ and producer DJ19, in co-operation with DJ Krush. It's all related to his own Chill Out Xperience downtempo series, and allows him to explore new terrritories his normal project would not allow. This latest release, the COX EP, features remixes of two of the latest Ambrozia cuts, as Perc lends his twisted ideas to 'It's U' and Switchshift deal up a nifty little breakbeat remix of 'Lovely Lovely Lovely'.

Leading us into 'It's U', Perc utilises his trademark stabs and twisted loops to build a deep groove which sits under the rocking drum percussion that emerges as we head into the main section of the track. Melodies rise and burst against the backdrop, as a vocodered vocal adds to the underlying dark mood. As it returns for the second time however, it drops out into a soothing female vocal and lush waves of sound, before the percussion re-emerges to build the pace back up again and carry us to the end nicely.

'Switchshift' follow on with a tight nu-skool breaks remix of 'Lovely Lovely Lovely', keeping a throbbing beat pattern running as sub bass effects, strings and the emotive female vocals provided by the outfit's vocalist Julianne are dropped loosely into the mix at key points, keeping things changed up and evolving to maintain the interest on the dancefloor.

A lovely varied set of mixes from this sometimes overlooked Japanese label, and if you are looking for some laid back emotive tracks for your warm up sets, you could do a lot worse.