J.Axel - You Give Me (Love)

I was introduced to this one through utterly bland downtempo compilation 'Chill Pill' on Groove Gravy. There it was in the form of the 'Rain Edit' which edited down the original with a minute and add rainy sounds in the intro & outro. It was the highlight of a set of random cuts. After giving the track much plays it was enough for me to try to find the original release. To my delight i was given a release with two straightforward groovers on the a-side and two wonkier cuts on the flip.

The original is a nice deep effort with a low-key bassline, a flute and moody pads. It serves quite well as a backdrop for Astrid Suryanto's silky smooth & smoky vocals. The flute seem really out of place in the first minute but fits like a glove in the latter part of the track. American Chris J, who seem to juggle deep housey releases with hardhitting drum & bass take a much deeper approach and emphasises it with a much more subbier bass. Soundscapes are widened with a smoky pads, steelguitar stabs and a vibrant bongo drum.

On the flip you find frequent Astrid Suryanto collaborator Dave Micalizzi along with Mike Marolla making a breakbeat rerub under their 'Lypid' moniker. The original bassline is replaced with a sparkly bass which goes with the phased violiny synth which dominates the higher frequencies. Next up you have Geche which opted for an alternative house affair with bleeps, glitches & distortions. Suryanto's vocals are given a mighty processing with first altering the vocal melody and using distorted & effected cutups,delays and echoes scattered along the track. The influence of Herbert & Akufen is highly present in this remix but it seems like it is different enough to not just be a copycat

Astrid's voice really is excellent... in fact, I think it really carries the record! The A-side is not too bad, but the beat in the original mix especially could use some improvement... it's quite bland. I tend to think that the B-side is a total waste, as neither mix really moves me. I think this track definitely deserves the treatment of a few good remixers!