George Acosta is from Miami and is a self-proclaimed leader of the trance sound, especially on South Beach. To be fair, it's probably just the publicists responsible for such overhype, and while that hype may be somewhat true, I'm compelled to point out that Florida is known especially well for Florida breaks, tribal house, and progressive house. It's home to the WMC and personally, I see house and all its stylistic variations as the definitive sound of South Beach. And some of the real names in trance that eclipse Acosta are Tiesto, Armin van Buuren, and Ferry Corsten.
Normally I wouldn't nit-pick a good artist, but this cover of New Order's "Blue Monday" is a tragedy. Oh where to begin? The Ford mix- The vocals are vocoded and sound like a computerized voice box. The bassline mimics the vocal line and is just annoying. George Acosta's Original mix is a lame combination of breakbeats and hokey-sounding trance-style synthwork. Once again, the synths mimic the vocal melodies and it's like some kind of horrible new mutant elevator music... I prefer elevator music to this. The MOTU mix is an insipid, non-evolving trance mix. This particular trance treatment effectively destroys any hint of emotion of the original, replacing it with pure blandness. The NE-1 Morphed mix goes for a tough, driving trance sound and falls flat on its face when it tries to go somewhere but never does. If you're going to place masturbatory knob-twiddling skills over the heart of the song, you're going to end up with one big bombastic piece of pure trash. Say that without spitting!
It's not like New Order's "Blue Monday" is my all time favorite song. And I'm not the type to be a cult fan of anything, really. I like it all. But it's a golden moment by one of the best electronic groups of our time. I do love the song. I wish these guys did too. Extra special low rating for disturbing a classic's grandeur. Let's just forget about this tragic moment and move on.
