Digital Witchcraft – Fingerpaint (Remixes)

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  • Following on from the highly successful first CD release by Proton Radio is the launching of their new label with a collection of mixes of Digital Witchcraft – Fingerpaint. Run as an online remix contest the winning mix picked by Ned & Marcus was by Iceland duo R&M (Roofus and Mr. Minute). Second place in the contest was chosen by the Proton Team, Opencloud’s Welcome Back to Earth Remix. The Original Mix is much like the normal Digital Witchcraft fair. Sweeping sounds, striking melody, nice understated breakbeat and layers upon layers of beauty. Digital Witchcraft have an innate ability to immerse the listener in the sounds of their production, building tracks that become better with each listen and sneak up from humble beginnings into massive tunes. It’s easy to see what the Digital boys saw in R&M’s mix. Replacing the breakbeat is a rather steady held back flat beat that underlies another beautiful new melody dropped on top. It kicks off with the kick, and a suggestion of darker pastures than the original. Initially it seems to drag as the intricacy of the melody starts to devour the bass, but it’s reined in by some very effective programming, with once again the ability of the track to envelop the listener taking hold. Probably suited to a more kicked back vibe than the original the R&M mix is a truly stellar track in its own right, almost as though the Digital Witchcraft guys wrote a second version themselves (rather startling considering their original mix wasn’t available to the competition entrants). The Opencloud mix takes the track to a whole new level. Actually it takes it back down a level, from the ethereal nature of the first to mixes back to Earth (see the clever remix name). Driving four-four turns Fingerpaint into a real dance-floor stormer. Stabbing synths and a truly distorted underlying theme are set off by a sublime re-working of the melody, floating over the whole track. This will have you hips shaking wildly while your hands are floating above your head. This mix has a really meatier sound in a conventional sense, it doesn’t sneak upon you, it hits you right in the face. (The Proton team must be commended for deciding upon this as the runner-up, clearly taking the original track parts to a whole new place). All three of the tracks are great, though for me it’s the darker tinged Opencloud mix that works best. Maybe it was the ‘sameness’ of the other two mixes, but it was refreshing to just nod my head while listening rather than closing my eyes and swaying. The R&M Mix is truly beautiful, deeply emotional and a pleasure to listen to, over and over again. To me they’ve done a better job of producing a Digital Witchcraft song than the guys themselves; though it must be said that the Original cannot be underestimated in any way. A great kick off to Proton’s label, the tracks are available exclusively through digital download on EDM or Beatport and are truly worth checking out. (Also get onto the Proton Radio site for downloads of highly commended mixes – Paper Scissors Destroy the Canvas Remix is tops, along with all the others).
RA