Track reviews: The best of February

Over the past month, these two tracks have stayed in my top 5 for a decent amount of time, and for a good reason. I haven't gotten around to reviewing them until now, but if you're a trance fan and haven't checked them out already, now is a good time to do so.

1. Running Man - Fading Memories (RedSound Remix) [Only One]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @JunoDownload

When I first heard this song on Afterhours.fm's excellent Spain Trance Connection radio show, one of my thoughts was how much this song sounds like a track built in the early 2000's, but re-outfitted for 2010.

The song opens with your standard intro fare, but things get started quickly with a series of reverberated high-pitched descending scales that sound like the musical equivalent of stars falling out of the sky.

After some chopped samples of female vocalizations and a driving bassline get thrown into the mix, a soft melody emerges going into the breakdown, but it's not what's about to be featured in the closing minutes of the song.

Right at the end of the breakdown comes the main melody- a catchy rhythm that's played out by a synth with an old-school tuning- something that's not commonly heard in trance today.

This song also has a decent lasting value- on each listen I discover another subtle element of the track that I didn't hear before.

Rating: 8 out of 10 [Great]

2. Hodel & JP Bates - Mirrors (Sunny Lax Remix) [Perceptive]

@Beatport // @YouTube // @JunoDownload

One of my soft spots in electronic music are songs have have melodies that are reminiscent of those old 8-bit sounds you would hear on a Game Boy, and "Mirrors" features one of these in a big way.

Everything in this song in neatly constructed- there isn't one effect or rhythm that sounds out of place, and there's also never a point where it sounds like too much is going on at once.

Throw in some powerful piano notes and a few interesting pad sounds- all with a progressive, yet uplifting tint- and you have one of the best songs of 2010 so far.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10 [Choon]

[Image credit: Junodownload]