Review: Prayers (Shinichi Osawa Remix) – Clazziquai Project
Artist: Clazziquai Project
Title: Prayers (Shinichi Osawa Remix)
Catalogue No.: RRCD-85370D1
Tracklist:
01. Prayers
02. Prayers (Shinichi Osawa Remix)
The reason I intentionally stay away from sites like Juno Download, Beatport and Trackitdown is because the moment I get on there, I end up buying more mp3s in the name of looking for music. While this is good for my audio library and my listening pleasure, this is unfortunately not so good on my bank account as it is very easy to overspend on digital download sites without knowing it.
Sometimes you get nice surprises on these sites; for example, a lot of the remixes that were on Ayumi Hamasaki’s ayu-mi-x Gold and Silver are available on Beatport under the “Ayu” moniker (save for the High Contrast remix of No Way To Say, which is a shame.)
On Juno Download on the other hand, one of the surprises I found was a variety of Clazziquai Project releases which was aimed at the DJ/electronic fans market.
To start with, Clazziquai Project is one of those groups that seem to have large amounts of material so it’s hard to know exactly where to start. Until I got this release, the most I knew of Clazziquai Project was the really nice Proposed Flower Wolf from playing DJ Max Technika, so I found that perhaps the releases available on Juno Download would be a good starter guide.
The first track in the release is the song Prayers (original) taken straight from the Love Child of the Century album. I was immediately sold from the moment I heard the first ten seconds of the song, partly due to Horan’s tone and the downtempo feel of this song. I personally love the use of the guitar in this song as that gives the song a very acid jazz feel. It’s a lovely, gentle song that makes good night driving music.
When I first listened to Prayers (Shinichi Osawa Remix) on the other hand, I sat there for the whole 5 minutes of the song and the first thing that came to mind was that Shinichi Osawa just went mad in cutting up the song. He cuts large chunks of the song up and lays a electro house backing behind. Not to mention that I have my suspicions that Mr. Osawa used the template as his remix of Namie Amuro’s What A Feeling as the similarities are quite apparent especially with the way that the vocals are cut – the difference being that Shinichi Osawa tried to make some strange backmasking effect with Prayers. So while not the most original of Shinichi Osawa remixes, I do find this remix to be one of his most enjoyable because I find it utterly amusing.
As this costs £2.60 to buy the entire release in 320kbs MP3, I’d say that it was one starting point for anybody wanting to know more about Clazziquai Project. Not to mention hey, it’s Shinichi Osawa. Which means that you’re guaranteed on the quality of the remix, even if it is a bit whacked out.
