OceanLab – Beautiful Together

As quality as the other OceanLab productions are, I'll probably always regard "Beautiful Together" as my favourite. The original mix is a masterful piece of uplifting vocal Trance, and although the peaks arrive early in its 7 minute duration, there is no drag throughout the rest of the track. On a slightly related note, the quick breather after the first peak (and before the 2nd verse) with the filtered "wishing" and nifty keyboards was stuck in my head for days afterwards, and remains a rather subtle example of Above & Beyond's production wizadry.
Justine Suissa's vocal performance, on the other hand, is a perfectly clear example of her talents, and just goes to show why she is so revered in the Trance scene.

The Signum remix on the B side is an intense, pounding hard trancer, which, although a bit of a classic, is a bit too straightforward in the production department for my tastes. I like it, but I doubt I will be switching preferences from the A side anytime soon.

At first I thought the Original mix was too lame with its seemingly dull guitar riff, so headed straight for the Signum remix on the other side. It's really energetic and takes me back to nights under the lasers at Godskitchen whenever I hear those toplines. But I played it to death and it became a bit pants after a while (as with most trance tunes!)

Having not heard it for AGES, I put the Original in a mixtape I did recently, and the more I hear it the better it gets :) The strings in the background are so uplifting - I can't believe I wrote it off when it was released 2 years ago, and that it took me so long to notice it was actually really good. When you hear it, listen closely and pay attention, but lose yourself in the strings - try to ignore the guitar bits + you'll be in heaven!! 5/5