Artist: Ashland
Title: Clear
Label: Audio Therapy
By: Simon Jones | 16 July 2003
Tracklist:

• A: Charlie May Mix
• B: Burufunk Mix

Ashland "Clear"

Ashland is a collaboration between Leiam Sullivan and Mark Picchiotti, both of whom have storied backgrounds in the music industry over the past ten years or so. Leiam formed part of the outfit known as Mr Pink, amongst others, being involved in projects by Rollo of Faithless fame at some point, whilst Mark Picchiotti has found grace with Pete Tong with his production work under such guises as The Absolute and Basstoy, in addition to producing and writing tracks for Kylie Minogue's 'Light Years' and 'Fever' albums, in addition to many other high profile artists. Needless to say, the expertise on this project is immense, but whilst 'Clear' stood out for it's soaring rock vocals on both Dave Seaman's Global Underground Melbourne cd and the Audiotherapy 'My Idea Of House' sampler, many djs complained at it's incompatibility issues in their sets. Needless to say these cries did not go unheard, and now out of the darkness steps this remix package to address the issue.

First to address the issue is 'Charlie May', who strips the original down totally and builds it into what basically is a totally new track, heavy synths and shaker percussion fusing together to create the groove of the track, into which Charlie drops parts of the vocal, concealed by a huge wobbling b-line which cuts through the beats in gut wrenching fashion. As the track pushes forward, the percussive loops are cut up and changed, taking things slightly deeper, but when it comes down to the crunch it's another heavy duty number from Mr May, although is not on a par with some of his other remixes. A bit more of a miss than a hit.

The second of the mixes comes from Texans 'Burufunk', the husband and wife production duo of Curtis and Leaha Fallis have recently come almost out of nowhere, producing remixes for Sasha and BT, and this is the next chapter in their story. They tell the tale with a mixture of no nonsense breakbeat rhythms and fierce drums, a heavy bassline and soaring strings, dropping in the vocal sparingly, letting it take over leading into each of the two big drops in the track and kickin it ghetto style. Slightly Hybrid-esque, but that's not by any means a bad thing, and this well produced little ditty is tough enough to get the trainspotters running to the booth, and captivating enough to get the girls singing along. Anthemic to say the least.

Whilst not quite up there with Infusion's 'Legacy' in terms of quality, this is a fair release from Audiotherapy, which was always going to be a tricky one due to the nature of the original. Charlie May has a somewhat rare off day with a plodding uninspired mix, whilst Burufunk take it to the centre of the dancefloor. A sign of the times that upcoming talent is taking over more and more..