VA, Electronic Luv - Mixed by Hatiras, CD

[Asteroid]

Hatiras is known for Spaced Invaders but does anyone really know what his deejay sets are like? This CD is great indication of his talents, How so? Read the review.

Hatiras – Electronic Luv (Liquid Adrenaline + NueMethod Recordings)


Hatiras is a name that most of you are familiar with but if you are not, here is a quick biography on him. His real name is George Hatiras and for years, he has been a promoter with his Liquid Adrenaline parties and a deejay and a remixer. He is based out of Toronto and his mix album was done after he ended a tour for his full length album called “Arrival”. Hatiras is probably best known for his “Spaced Invaders” song that was big all over the world from late 2000 to 2001, where it hit the charts and many big name deejays played it. Well a few years later, he is still deejaying and this is a mix that he did out of the blue apparently.

Cover and Inlay – The cover is simply put together and eye catching with the simplicity of Hatiras’s name, a cool logo of a red heart and a phone jack and electronic luv, next to the heart. The inlay uses things like News Flash, talking about what Hatiras was up to and little things like Xtra Xtra that Spaced Invaders was made with the help of little green men. It is apparent that Hatiras loves to have fun with everything he does. We have the thank you part from Hatiras and Craig Carstensen who owns NueMethod Recordings. It has this funny part that says Important note to self that says go buy the arrival CD and be on the lookout for his other project called Hatjak and to sign up at the website. At least they like to have a sense of humor then it has the track information that they call “Legalpalooza …(Yawn!)”. It shows that you can have some fun with CD inlays and not be rigid and boring like some others.

Electronic Luv mixed by Hatiras

Tracklist
1.Vocodude – Intro
2.Hatiras – Running
3.Hatjak – It Was
4.Hatiras – The Anthem
5.Steve Smooth – Beatfreaker (David Garcia and Jay Walker Retromode Mix)
6.Urban – Bust A Nut
6B. Tony Senghore & Baby Ark – Beat, Flows and Hoes (Accapella)
7.Alex Peace – Cumin’ Thru Your Speaker (Hatiras Remix)
8.Synthique - Bubbles
9.Tony Senghore – Hey Chica (Derrick Carter Remix)
10.Jelo – Chaos Bringer (Hatiras Remix)
10B. DJ Bam Bam featuring Alex Peace – This
11.Carole Pope – All Touch (Hatiras Remix)
12.Yug – Got To Just
13.Paul Johnson – The Way He Plays (Dub)
13B.Hatiras – Set If Off (Accapella)
14.Louis Botella – Instinct (Saturday Night Mix)
15.Bad Boy Bill – Costa Del Sol (Sol Remix)
16.Hatjak – Searchin’
17.M1 – Fly

1.Vocodude – Intro

This is a simple and effective start on the mix album. This is a very short intro that has a vocodered voice that says “An exploration of your mind” (a voice comes in saying Hatiras) then “An exploration of sound, this is electronic luv”

2. Hatiras – Running

This is really where things get going on this CD. We start on an electro trip here and we have a vocal going “Running from you, can’t take it no more, honey we’re thru”. The song is backed with an addictive electro beat with a nasty hook here. About a minute in, the voice sings “We’re Thru” and it repeats itself and as it is repeating, the track itself starts to build. Shortly after, the song goes to more electro house in terms of a bassline and the voice saying “Hatiras” comes in about ten seconds later. About two minutes into the song, it breaksdown and these nice synths come in. It then reverts back to the chorus and then the song starts to be mixed into another and we move on to song three.

3.Hatjak – It Was

This is supposedly Hatiras’s secret electro pop project with as he calls it, musical genius Jaxon. We are still on the electro trip here but we move into a more driving style of electro. The bassline is much sharper and quicker and sounds so 1980’s and it moves and as a result, it drives the song. A vocal sings “Once Upon Time, It was you and me” with the 1980’s electro feel bassline. The song then breaksdown and it goes to more percussion with less bass and then the vocal starts “You used to be so easy, you used to feel so good, then things got crazy, we did things we never should, Now I’m trying to keep it together, trying not to tear you apart, just want us to be together, We’ll never be apart”. The vocal is catchy with the nice electro bassline and then it breaksdown again and resorts back to the chorus then breaksdown again and goes back into the same verses. This song builds on the second song and we are seeing more electro to begin with and the songs have these nice hooks to catch you. They repeat the verses again later and back to the chorus and then we start to go into more single style beats and you can tell we are moving on to another song.

4. Hatiras – The Anthem

Now as most songs that are being mixed into each other, you keep one element then slowly bring in the other song till you completely fade out the other tune. This goes about it differently because Hatiras here keeps the “Once upon a time” vocal well into “The Anthem”. About a minute and half into this, Hatiras finally drops all hints of “It was” and we move into a funkier beat. The song has a solid bassline to it, it uses sound fx’s that they bring in and out. It is more house oriented and fits well after two electro songs, the CD at this point is just starting to build and build. Near the very end of this song, the bassline suddenly changes and starts to get very heavy and we proceed into track five.

5.Steve Smooth – Beatfreaker (David Garcia and Jay Walker Retromode Mix)

We start to go into more driving house at this point, we have a some drums that are used every so often that make up the bassline. We have a deep male vocal that keeps repeating Beatfreaker but it sounds like BeatfreakAH. The song breaks down and adds a nasty driving riff that completes the track. We continue like this till near the very end when a vocal comes in with a guy going on drugs and sex. The bassline changes at this point and we are now into song number six

6.Urban – Bust A Nut
6B. Tony Senghore & Baby Ark – Beat, Flows and Hoes (Accapella)

The accapella is layered over Urban’s Bust A Nut, which is a hard driving house track that makes excellent use of constant drums. This drives the track, the accapella is a rambling about drugs, sex and women and it really makes no sense but it seems to add to the song. About two half and minutes, we have a vocal enter again but it is not the accapella, it is the track seven and you can tell a harsher even more driving song is entering and one song is being mixed in and one is being mixed out.

7. Alex Peace – Cumin’ Thru Your Speaker (Hatiras Remix)

This is the best track on the entire album and it really pushes the driving songs from the start. A vocal starts to speak “As I’m coming from inside the speaker” and it keeps repeating that vocal line. The beat is drum driven with some scratching effects coming in and out with a riff that just pushes this song into overdrive. The voice comes back saying “Can you hear me, Can you motherfuckers hear me?”. The track continues for a while longer then breaks down and the bass and the percussion are taken out and the voice speaks again “I am the voice, I am the percussion, I am the rhythm, I am the bass (and the bass reappears). We have the voice continue here with a “Can you hear me” that is repeated and then the voice says “Inside” and it comes back very quickly in succession and it blurs near the end. We have a few seconds of no voice and just the bassline then the voice comes back with “Some like me funky, others they like me raw, others don’t like me at all, nor do I give a f (blured by a sound effect), cuz the deejay is playing some hard funk and the bass suddenly goes almost one two and the drums follow suit. We have song seven being faded out into the more lovely Chicago house of song eight.

8.Synthique - Bubbles

We move from the driving pulse of the last six songs to a more house oriented phase. We start with this Chicago house bassline. The song consists of some cool sound effects used every so often, drums that blend into the bassline. The song has an almost funky hook that draws you in but not quite. This diva comes in singing “Wondering why, what I must do, Everyday I’m waiting for you” and she goes on into other verses but then reverts back to the main chorus that says “Bubbles and You”. Some other verses are added again then they revert to the chorus. You now understand why Hatiras chose this song because he is changing the pace of the CD. We then start to hear a totally different voice, which is a latin girl saying “Hey Chica” and this song is faded out and the next one is put in

9.Tony Senghore – Hey Chica (Derrick Carter Remix)

The bassline immediately gets harder and we go into latin influenced house here. Some drums are added and as that happens, we hear “Gangsta”, which is repeated. The same voice comes back and starts singing about something, it is hard to tell because the vocals are near the middle of the track and the bassline is almost pushing it to the background at times. After the vocal, the bassline gets much harder but still at the same speed, this is really a typical Derrick Carter Remix where he lets the bassline drive the track more than the vocal. So this song continues the house direction and this song goes right into track 10 with no fading one song and bringing in another. Just at one point, you suddenly realize that the next track is here. I’m not a big fan of just pushing the crossfader over to change tracks.

10.Jelo – Chaos Bringer (Hatiras Remix)
10B. DJ Bam Bam featuring Alex Peace – This

We are now right into song number ten here and the tempo has changed slightly because this is faster and more uptempo than track number nine. We have a vocal here as well but it is filtered in places, so you don’t get the complete clear vocal. We have more bass added then a sample going “Fuck It” enters and the voice comes back but even more of the vocal is filtered, so it is hard to understand what they are saying. About two and half minutes in, the song suddenly changes gears to electro again, this is Hatiras changing the pace again to keep you on your toes.

11. Carole Pope – All Touch (Hatiras Remix)

This is obviously a remix because Carole Pope was a famous singer from yesteryear. We begin with driving electro beats and a driving bassline to match. The bassline is electro beats and quick snares that are used one after the other. The chorus then enters with Carole Pope’s vocals. The track then breaks down and goes into just drums for a little while but then it changes gears again and goes into driving electro as before. This is a true musical journey and the track works out well. After 4 minutes into this song, we start to go into a more simpler house beat

12.Yug – Got To Just

This is the shortest song and I believe this is a bridge moving the mix CD from an electro tempo back to a house tempo. This uses some heavy bass with quick snares here. The vocal is near the back and the lady sings “Take your shirt off, take your pants down”. It is built on a simple house groove here. There is no mixing into track 13, we just suddenly change gears again

13.Paul Johnson – The Way He Plays (Dub)
13B.Hatiras – Set If Off (Accapella)

We go right into this song, with no hint of anything. It is another just crossfader job with respect to the mixing. We start disco house here and Hatiras here uses a Paul Johnson dub and his own accapella here. Paul Johnson – The Way He Plays is Chicago house song with a disco element. The accapella is a nice choice here because you can’t really tell it is an accapella and your only hint in the CD tracklist. The song has a groovy hook and that is made up of percussion and some light house riffs. We continue like this till the bassline starts to pick up in tempo and you hear another track being mixed in

14.Louis Botella – Instinct (Saturday Night Mix)

As track number 14 gets going, we are on the house parade here. The bassline is made up of lots of drums here. This is a Chicago house song, which is the same as the last few songs. We can tell that Hatiras is influenced by Chicago house. The vocal eventually comes in here but it sounds familiar and you think where did I hear this before? It eventually hits you that this is the same vocal that was used in the intro. We hear “Exploration of mind, exploration of sound”. The song carries on for a while longer with the same bassline then we go into track 15

15.Bad Boy Bill – Costa Del Sol (Sol Remix)

The mix is still in Chicago house mode but this is more mid 1980’s influence here. The track uses a soothing house beat with drums for the bassline. The vocal is in the middle here as well, it is a soothing diva’s voice singing notes here”. The track is laid back disco influenced Chicago house. They repeat Costa Del Sol near the middle of the track, over and over again. The track is then mixed out and we enter the second last track.

16.Hatjak – Searchin’

We are still in Chicago house mode here with a hint of electro in the bassline. We have a vocodered voice that sounds robotic in places. This is still house, we have some scratching noises entering every so often here. You have the main singer come in and sings some verses then reverts back to the chorus. It is also near the middle as well, not at the front or the back. It shows that Hatiras likes to play tracks with vocals that are not the center of attraction, he simply wishes to use tracks that have the bassline and the vocal both leading the track. The last mix is very short, it is almost a crossfader job as well

17.M1 – Fly

The final track is still in the house tip but it contains an impressive riff that hooks you on like a fish that is caught by a hook. It drags you through the track, it is so catchy. It is using the bassline which is drums and the riff which overtakes the song. It is a nice way to end it.


Conclusion:
Hatiras shows what his sets are really like, he starts on an electro journey after an intro and continues that for a few songs then quickly changes gears to house then goes electro again then goes house again. I enjoyed the mix CD, only thing I did not like was that two of the mixes were just quick crossfader jobs. Hatiras shows us that he has come along way since “Spaced Invaders” and has a lot left in him. Solid effort from Hatiras. This will also appeal to Canadian shoppers because it is priced at 13.99 at HMV, which is also a solid price for a solid CD.

written by Andy P (www.ivibes.nu)