In a slightly more positive instance of proliferating sounds and styles, the Benny Benassi sound is still reigning over dancefloors, both in production and mixes by the man himself and the International Gigolo Deejay Royal whatever groups who have latched onto the sound- "Flashdance… What A Feelin'," "Somebody's Watching Me," "Self Control," and the list goes on and on. We've even got "Satisfaction" in Wendy's commercials. Those monstrous farty bass noises are fun, at least, though I'd like to see some kind of evolution in the style before it hits a Robert Miles dreamhouse brick wall. Benny's mix of Fischerspooner's "Never Win" was a good start, hopefully laying some new groundwork.
Also skirting around the verge of played-out is the filtered-80s track, whereby a vocal phrase or chorus gets looped and amped and turned into something new. Last year was all about Eric Prydz' "Call on Me" and "Stupidisco" and "Make Your Move" fighting over the Pointer Sisters, though that approach to making dance records has been around since Black Box's "Ride on Time." This year, the big record for this style was the Dancing DJs versus Roxette's "Fading Like A Flower," which I will admit I adored. It was creatively done, and backed up with several good mixes and the original artist's approval.
The similarly-themed approaches to Boy Meets Girl's "Waiting for a Star to Fall," Mike and the Mechanics' "All I Need Is A Miracle" were also nice, but there were so many of these kinds of tracks this year, some official, some white labels, and others random home studio productions, that this style also threatens to become overdone as well.
There were several great singles this year, many of them stymied by the current downfalls of trying to make it in dance music- getting distribution, rampant leaking, lack of support on radio or any of the music television channels. But still, somehow, great stuff always manages to get through. Arista/Sony/BMG decided to acknowledge Sarah McLachlan's first album by having Tom Middleton do a remix of her first club hit "Vox" from back in 1988, and it's quite good. Nicol Sponberg's "Resurrection" got remixes from Gabriel and Dresden and Piper, and both approaches worked beautifully. Fischerspooner's "A Kick in The Teeth" wasn't even a single, but it's still one of the finest dance tracks of 2005. Madonna's "Forbidden Love" was just gorgeous (more on her later), and I love the old-school rave horns on Cascada's "Everytime We Touch," which just goes to show that the kids will eventually go for good pop music. I also dug Motorcycle's "Around You" and the unusually synth-happy Jason Nevins mix of Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone."
Depeche Mode dropped "Precious," their most electro single in several years, though once again, when it comes to understanding dance mixes, they shit the bed for the third time in the past two albums. The first mistake was when they ignored/rejected the Gabriel and Dresden mix of "Here is the House." That was exceptional, but for some horrifying reason we have to put up with Andain's vocals on the same production, which is unfortunate. Likewise, with "Freelove," they left Deep Dish's exquisite remix off the commercially-released CD single. And now, with "Precious," they get lots of great mixes, including an exceptional big room throwdown from Calderone and Quayle that, wouldn't you know it, gets left off the commercially-released single. Come on, guys- you should know better.