Back in the late 80s they really knew how to write a good song. Carol Decker's band T'Pau scored a perfect example with the hit single "China In Your Hand" from their debut album Bridge Of Spies. Fast forward nearly two decades, and UK trance darling Karen Danzig treats us to a rollicking cover version, complete with a generous assortment of remixes to appeal to any trance and UK hardcore house fan. Having worked with everyone from Stock/Aitken and Kim Wilde's brother Ricki to Styles & Breeze and Flip & Fill, Karen is no stranger to clubland, and her latest single is no exception
The original version of "China In Your Hand," (purchase/download) produced by Christian Davies, appears on the recent UK compilation CD Put Your Hands Up 3, and is only one of many strong productions in this remix package. The Discorockerz Remix (purchase/download) varies things up with a good bit of vocal stuttering, while Stefan Gruenwald's Funky Club Mix probably stands out the most as being unlike any of the other mixes on the single.
Another strong offering is the Blu Magoo Remix, which managed to faithfully reproduce the plucked-string riff from T'pau's original version. I also loved the pianos in the D-Star Club Mix, although its beats seemed to be EQ'd differently than the rest of the remixes. For this reviewer, Christian Davies' Clubland Mix is the strongest mix, its only distraction being the breakdown with Karen's British accent making it sound like she's repeating the phrase "chiner" in your hands over and over.
The Wonderphunk Electro Mix was one of the low points in the batch, being on the dubby side with a few random vocal phrases scattered here and there over a bed of decidedly electro-ish beats. The Audio G Club Mix follows a disturbing recent trend in trance music: verse vocals, followed by the chorus melody played note for note by a hard synth-line, and THEN the chorus vocals. Me, I find this annoying – maybe you do too.
All in all, a lot of these remixes do sound similar to each other, which is a good thing if you like this particular sound (think Cascada, Hixxy, DHT, etc). Most mixes remain quite faithful to the original version from the late 80s, in terms of chord structure and melody – definitely a good thing. If you were a fan of this T'Pau song back in the day, pick up a copy of this single. Even if you weren't, "China In Your Hand" is a strong song with great lyrics and melody, so the resulting remixes can't help but be top-notch.
