Bedrock revisit one of their biggest tracks from last year, Nick Warren & Guy Mantzur’s ‘Sad Robot’, with new remixes from Rich Lane, Alejo Gonzalez & Max Blade, and D-Nox & Beckers.
Rich Lane takes Nick Warren & Guy Mantzur’s track in a really unexpected direction, dropping the tempo, adding a wickedly good bassline, and dousing everything in vintage synth sounds, before layering on enticing melody lines. The key changes give the remix some really punchy moments too – a great start to the release, all round.
Next up we have Argentinian duo Alejo Gonzalez & Max Blade, who offer a fantastically atmospheric interpretation of ‘Sad Robot’, with a long intro building into a deep and understated progressive sound. Rippling melodies and pulsing bass parts compliment airy pads, while a moody breakdown leads to a nice finale in the last third of the track. My only (very minor) complaint is that it was a bit unclear to me whether any of Nick Warren & Guy Mantzur’s ideas made it into the DNA of Alejo Gonzalez & Max Blade’s track, and it felt a bit like a new piece of music than a remix. But maybe I’m wrong about that, and in any case, it’s a really nice piece of music, so perhaps it doesn’t matter too much.
D-Nox & Beckers were an inspired choice to remix ‘Sad Robot’, and they do exactly what you would hope they would – they utilise the strongest themes from Nick Warren & Guy Mantzur’s original while putting their own distinctive stamp firmly on every second of the running time. The remix starts off a stomp, with heavy kicks and a sparse but powerful bassline providing the foundation for eerie pads and a superb twist on the original’s vocal sample, before the percussion starts to build and build. Two minutes in, D-Nox & Beckers offer one of their characteristically warm and fuzzy basslines, and tease in delicate melodies from the original, before laying down their own hypnotic lead hook, and immediately offsetting it with Nick Warren & Guy Mantzur’s main theme. The result is electrifying, and D-Nox & Beckers keep the effect going successfully throughout the remainder of the track.
This is a very welcome return to Bedrock for ‘Sad Robot’, with all three version of Nick Warren & Guy Mantzur’s track being well worth a listen, and D-Nox & Beckers stealing the show with one of their best remixes so far.
