Artist: Max Mason
Title: Doinit
Label: Alternative Route
By: Nick Bower | 16 September 2003
Tracklist:

• A: Original Mix
• B: Dubbing It At Night Mix

Max Mason "Doinit"

Seasoned songwriter Max Mason many not be a name instantly recognisable to all, however his talents run wide and deep. From writing material during the mid 80's and DJ'ing/producing from the late 90's, Max has gradually amassed a following of loyal fans for both his productions and his renown DJ sets, his skills having been on show at the likes of ClubLove, Kafe Da, Ministry of Sound and Yousef's crowd pulling night - 'Circus' at Masque.

Without a doubt, Max is now making up for all those years of hard toil in the studio with this, his latest creation. “Doinit” was picked up by US label Deep Secret, and has now been licensed for release on Desyn Masiello's constantly evolving Alternative Route. The buzz around the track has reached far and wide, gaining some solid support from key DJs within the industry. This is proven by the fact that Lee Burridge (TYRANT) has requested 'Doinit' for inclusion on his forthcoming Global Underground compilation. What a great seal of approval for a track. As well as 'Doinit' and his other projects, Max has also been in the studio collaborating with artists such as Tony Thomas and Fitzy Fyne (Bhangra Knights Vs Hussan). A busy man indeed.

'Doinit' instantly oscillates its way into your senses, hitting you with a good few minutes-worth of deep, morphing acidic tones. The crescendo of this opening sound almost ends up as a tearing white noise, progressively building to a peak, just begging a groove to kick in - which it does at exactly the right point. An upbeat snare slides into the tune partnered by minimal percussion, dramatically swooshing FX and snippets of a female vocal.Gently, a bouncy and funk fuelled bassline pulses its way into the track, bringing along with it a whole plethora of other sounds - echoed FX, percussion and looped vocals, all constantly pushed on by the track's bassline and marching snare. 'Doinit' glams it up to the max (no pun intended!) but with good, healthy doses of tech house, spacial noises and minimal tribal changes sprinkled on top to keep the overall mix interesting and constantly evolving.

'Doinit' (Dubbing it at night) presents an equally pacey beat, this time drawing more out of the percussive side of the production and bringing this to the fore. Its clear to hear that this mix has certainly had the dial marked 'tribal' tweaked up a few notches, and the rest of the track lends itself well to this. The remix also utilises the female vocal to a greater extent, working very well as it drifts in and out of the track as increasing amounts of percussion are added. Certainly proving that this is a well thought out and structured remix, 'Doinit' (Dubbing it at night) fills the gaps that the original version leaves open, for this reason both tracks complement eachother extremely well. Solid stuff.

Once again, the Alternative Route label manage to present a very interesting fusion of sounds in Max Mason's 'Doinit', as they have in their previous releases. Just when you think you might have the typical 'Alternative Route sound' all worked out, the label cheekily takes you by the hand and leads you down a totally different avenue. I'm sure many will gladly follow with mixed feelings of bemusement and excitement. Alternative Route are certainly seeming to be 'Doinit' at the moment, how apt the label name is proving to be.