Ceres ‎– Turn Me On Now / Ease Your Mind

I've never been too partial to these old releases from 1998, yet both tracks on this EP from Benno de Goeij were very popular ten years ago and appeared on multiple compilation albums, cementing their wide-ranging appeal.

Turn Me On Now has a steady-yet-energetic build-up to the 3.15 mark, then explodes to a nice piece of euphoria, which then subsides slightly before a similarly euphoric finale a minute later. It features intermittant female vocals who repeats a phrase over and over, but I find it unintelligible and have no idea what is being said. This is more enjoyable now than I remembered it, although perhaps its structure is simply 'too 1998' to be taken seriously nowadays.

The B-Side, Ease Your Mind, has a heavier beat which is noticeable from the outset. From around the 2.07 mark, I can sense a more sinister sound than Turn Me On Now, although just like its cousin on the A-Side the track builds up to a euphoric breakdown, as was the law in the late-nineties. A female vocalist seems to be enjoying herself immensely on this track, which is quite surprising when one considers she was probably paid with a packet of crisps and a busfare home. "wooooo, let it ease your mind" she cries, and at 5.23 the wall of sound finale hits us, wooooo's and all.

I found both tracks to be very similarly structured, with an energetic build-up to a first breakdown. This was followed by a siesta of sorts, before a second, more euphoric breakdown concluded the tracks. This was arguably the finest release from ITWT in 1998.