Here is how 2009 is shaping up for singles of the year:
1. Ink Stains – Regina Spektor
2. I Gotta Feeling (David Guetta FMIF Remix) – Black Eyed Peas
3. Stillness Is The Move – Solange Knowles
4. Set Me Free (Harvard Bass Remix) – Drop The Lime
5. My Prerogative (Armand Van Helden Remix) – Britney Spears
You know the first three and Britney because I’ve raved about em so much, and you know Drop The Lime because I’ve written about Luca Venezia consistently since seeing him in concert this summer, but “Set Me Free” is new (released November 10th) and the only think that stops this song from making Venezia a superstar is that, well, he isn’t a superstar. If he was, if “Set Me Free” -at least the Harvard Bass remix, was ubiquitous, it would sound so much better.
Fronted by a new soul singer who seems to have suddenly emerged onto the scene, Carrie Wilds, on this mix Drop the Lime rides her voice relentless and the bass surges upwards and upwards and upwards (he should have tatooed MORE BASS), the spacey special effects tracks behind him are spacey and if the machines semm otherworldly the vocals are fleshy and soulful. After the first time she Carrie sings “Let the music set me free” everything drops out, there is a couple of seconds of complete silence and then the bass breaks back in and Carrie seems to be dueting with it; her voice splices in and out of the bass mix and the tom toms (which sound real to me…) takes her place and then the drum falls out and it is just the tomtoms and then a drum machine takes back over and than a bass drum and it is just drum machine and bass drum through to the end.
A great song. A great achievement.
I’ll get to the rest of the songs on the EP eventually but if Valencia could just be in the right place at the right time, he is the guy to bring dance to the mainstream.