Artist: Darren Rhys
Title: Lost Soul
Label: Electrofly Records
By: Nick Williams & Brandon Wade | 8 February 2006
Tracklist:

• A: Original Mix
• B: Katakana Mix

Darren Rhys "Lost Soul"

Relative newcomer to the scene and Cardiff native Darren Rhys brings us Electrofly's 19th installment to their already plump portfolio. Although this is his first officially pressed release, Darren has had a few tracks out for purchase on EDM Digital, as well as one for Sentient Audio Collective. The remix comes out of the UK as well, with Katakana’s Misplaced Mix. Katakana is definitely the more seasoned veteran, as he has had remixes for a slew of labels, including Gravitation, Source of Gravity, Little Fluffy, and on his own Sonambulist Recordings.

The original of 'Lost Soul' is a percussion led, melodic breaks dreamer. Popping breakbeats introduce some great reversed bells that sound very surreal, and as we enter the first break, some more bells are layered on top that work pretty well to create a nice melodic line. The beats come right back in and an arpeggiated warm bass synth along with delayed drums bring some changes to the sound. The next break introduces the hook, which is a combination of chorded bass changes along with the bell line from before. The breakbeats come back in more in the background as we float away into the melody. The reversed bells change key as well to complement the bass and create a very warm texture that carries on to the finish.

As with the original, Katakana's remix is very percussion led, with some of the same samples being used. A filtered broken rhythm section, much like woodblock melody made to sound like bongos introduce the remix. Keep in mind though that this is definitely suited more for the dancefloor than the original, as heavy beats with the same arpeggiated surging bassline greet us early in the track, with those warm twinkly bells riding alongside it, being delayed and effected. The track keeps building with very subtle progression as small, obscure background samples are added to the texture, even without you even realizing it. A great aspect to this track is the percussive edits that break up the driving, droney bassline. A small break opens up to an arpeggiated stab that follows the chorded bass changes, following the same hook as in the original. We found that this remix follows in the same vein that the original does, but this one would be the one to play in the club.

However, when all is said and done it seems that these tracks are focused more on quantity of samples rather than quality, as we both found it hard to keep the groove, almost like we were being assaulted with a wall of sound. And although both tracks here were a bit cluttered at times, the hook is where it is at here, and we both found ourselves humming the melody days after hearing this. We believe that it could have been brought to us in a tighter package. For fans of Darren’s work, look out for a new release very soon on Sentient Audio Collective, entitled 'Crying Over Nothing', which will feature vocal, instrumental, and, you guessed it… remixes.