Artist: Chopstick & Spoiled
Title: Who Is It?
Label: iNtra Records
By: Matthew Esler | 4 February 2003
Tracklist:

• A: Mike Monday Remix
• B: Original Mix

Chopstick & Spoiled "Who Is It?"

Who is it? Well, a few people might be saying that it's Chopstick & Spoiled after playing this little stormer. Chopstick (who, with DJ Pheonix, is Smart System) & Spoiled (Elad Avnon, founder of iNtra Records) have created a dancefloor monster of huge general appeal for iNtra Records. iNtra's recent release of "Spoiled presents Stoler - 3AM", with a massive remix from Chris Lake, has been garnering support from DJs such as Hernan Catteneo and Pete Tong. "Who Is It?" looks to be a worthy follow up.

Mike Monday, has turned in quite a few brilliant remixes of late, including massive remixes of "Greed feat Lesley - Strange World", "Guy Gerber & Sahar Z - Kenny's Back" and "Space Manoeuvres - Pluto Disko". His remix of "Who Is It?" continues his trend of coming up with something different and complimentary to the original.

The Mike Monday mix takes us on a much housier trip than the original, with the funky vocal samples brought to the fore, and excellent use of a tweaky syncopated guitar sound. The track is almost two minutes shorter, and the bass beat is much bouncier. The first breakdown brings out the cute but sinister little girl sample before throwing an absolutely HUGE bassline into the mix. This mix is sure to ignite a house-driven dancefloor later on in the night.

It still retains something of a spooky feel until some piano stabs move the atmosphere of the track into serious house land. The track is relatively sparse in comparison to the original, which is a good thing because it allows the massive bassline to take the listener on a nice rolling groovy trip.

Some of the elements of this mix are somewhat typical, but the sounds have been crafted and used in such a skillful way that they fit perfectly and create something that sounds fresh. The track drops into what at first sounds like a fairly standard housey breakdown, but gradually turns more trippy, again with the sinister but cute little girl. The climax out of the breakdown is just that. The buildup is excellent and the track soars off towards the mix out, no doubt leaving many bodies flung about in wild abandon on the dancefloor.

The original mix of "Who Is It?" opens up with a sharp but heavy tribal drum that swings from background to foreground nicely, and is laced with a fine layer of congas. A crystal clear and energetic sprinkling of high hat styled sounds brings the track to a brief glass breaking pause before the oh-so-techy-and-phat bassline swings into place, surely to the delight of any dancefloor it descends on.

At this point we are only a minute into the track, and "Who Is It?" has created a groovy and hypnotic aural environment. The sweet sound of breaking glass is used to great effect in another couple of pseudo-breakdowns, and the track toughens up a bit, before gently shifting into a breakdown. The breakdown is excellent, containing a little girl speaking, a nice scattering of conga beats, and several spooky layers of synth and sparkling effects. The collection of sounds creates an attention stealing disorientation before it all merges into a sweeping synth and the body of the track comes crashing back.

The track grooves on for a bit before going through another short breakdown, where we hear the title sample of "Who Is It?", a whispered female vocal. This breakdown is used to empty out the track a bit, and the bassline becomes more prominent, before sparkling synths take us on a bit of a more trancy trip for a while. Building back into the main body and ebbing out sowly, "Who Is It?" finishes off with a very DJ friendly mix out.

iNtra Records are onto a real winner here. Both sides of this slab of vinyl are worthy of play in the heat of the action, and should tear up the right dancefloor with no trouble at all. Massive basslines, surrounded by excellent production and a fresh overall sound mean each of these tracks deserves quite a bit of attention from DJs around the world.