System F Featuring Armin van Buuren - Exhale

Do you ever hear those Trance tracks that make your spine tingle with happiness and bliss? This is one of those tracks. "Exhale" has everything a trance song needs. A strong beat, steady bassline, breathtaking synths, unforgetable melody, and some of the most amazing breakdowns and build-ups make this a classic never to be forgotten.

The Sander K remix is more or less a textbook example of everything that's wrong with techno... Well, seriously, Mr. Kleinenberg has pulled the old trick when remixing, and made a completely different track. Monotonous and devoid of melody, next to nothing remains of the original. I guess Tsunami wanted to include something that'd appeal outside the trance crowd, given the nature of the A side.

When Ferry and Armin joins forces, you'd expect high quality, and in my opinion that's exactly what you get. Rather close to being a perfect trance track in the soft hyper-uplifting style prevalent around 2001; the melody soars sky-high through multilayered buildups and breakdowns, and the entire thing is slick as an oiled snake in the production department. However, as is also common for this style, the percussion itself is indeed a bit uninteresting, and feels rather like a copy of tons of other Ferry/Armin productions.

The original is, more or less, a textbook example of everything that is wrong with trance. Blippy, uninteresting percussion, overbearing pretentious build ups, and a gag-inducing string patch. However, Sander K's mix is gritty, funky and deeply driving. House and techno DJ alike perk up their ears when they catch the thunka-THUNK beat coming in.