Mr Sam* – Lyteo

The much praised Rank 1 remix is really nothing special for me. To start, the looping vocal chops at the intro can be kind of numbing. When I'm at home, I personally love to put my playlists on shuffle, so hearing those chops upfront can get easily annoying and I would just as quickly skip to the next track. Well, more generally, much of this track relies on the looping vocal snippets anyhow, so you can imagine how much importance was pinned on that particular aspect of the song. In fairness, a solid tech melody comes in at the breakdown, but it's still nothing too memorable. It's good for what it is. It leaves a dirty, kind of darkish trail behind, which goes over pretty well in a club setting I believe. Thinking about this now, in hindsight, the 2008 Rank 1 track called "L.E.D. There Be Light" sounds very reminiscent of their remix of Lyteo, especially in terms of the breakdown.

Now enter Mr Sam's original take, and it seems reasonable to say that this is the one that should have been getting more of the praise. I find the approach a better fit for Kirsty's vocals, first of all. The tech-trance influences aren't as strong, and there is a more progressive drive to it, featuring a chunky and groovy bassline, while keeping the darker feel intact. This one would be good at the start of a set or at the transition from slower tempo to faster tempo tracks.