Artist: Mara
Title: Turning It On
Label: White Label
By: Simon Jones | 30 July 2002
Tracklist:

• A: Original Mix

Mara "Turning It On"

Barry Gilbey and Sara Whittaker-Gilbey, collectively known as Mara have had a busy year thus far, with many remixes for such diverse acts as Space Lovers, DD Klein, Dino Lenny and Ben Camp in addition to their recent 'Stripped Beats EP' on Choo Choo and the forthcoming Heretic on breakbeat label Akademia Recordings. However, they have found time to put together this track, one that Human League's Phil Oakley who has recently worked with them on a track for their forthcoming debut long player and also DJs such as Ali Dubfire from Deep Dish have been championing, with others giving rave reviews about it, so without further ado we present our own Progressive-Sounds review of Mara's new single, Turning It On.

The trademark Mara percussion leads us in into subtle effects and loops. However, laid back synths wash over the bassline, interrupted only by a spanish guitar-esque riff, before Sara's vocal begins to trickle through the speakers softly, but with enough power and depth to take control of the track, crafting a deep, delicious, blissed out masterpiece, which still retains enough elements to ensure it will work on the dancefloor and engrain itself into minds of people will will be humming it unknowingly after only a few listens as the riffs in the background only serve to push the vocal into your mind even further. It's one of those tracks that merges excellent production with great ideas and slips a vocal that actually builds the track around itself into the centre of everything, creating one masterpiece that is without a doubt Mara's finest moment yet.

Expect this track to go down a storm over the course of the summer, and wherever you may be venturing on vacation to go out and have fun it would not surprise me if at least one DJ had this in their box. Currently it's only available on one sided white label, so whether it will get a full release who knows, but if you are lucky enough to stumble across one of these beauties snap it up without a second thought, because Mara will turn you on.