- We spend a lot of time in dance music looking for songs that are fun, tough, ground-breaking, sexy, trippy or hard. And then every now and then something comes along that’s beautiful. ‘Aria’ is beautiful. We all knew by now that Lee Jones was talented but he’s never had an ‘anthem’ per se, but if the mood is right in 2008 this could be the record to change that.
The central motif here is unbearably simple—just four perfect, slow notes descending. The kind of thing that makes you think this music thing is easy. But there’s some magic in those notes that is just heartbreaking, like if this played three quarters of the way into a great night out you’d fall in love on the spot. And if you were already in love you’d have to go find that person right there and then and share unspoken messages with them in the middle of the dancefloor.
The track is delicate but still forceful with a slight, loping funk that suits its romantic nature perfectly, and is decorated with emotional flourishes that make the heart swell and the spine tingle. I’d play it at a moment in the night when everyone is drenched in sweat but somehow calm and the dancefloor is half empty, but for anyone there it would be the moment that they go home and remember the evening by.
Tiger Stripes is a smart enough producer to know what he’s dealing with on the remix and sticks closely to the mood and strongest features of the track. But he gives it a tougher, more linear beat and stretches out the drama, paring off a lot of the detail and thereby turning the dreamy romance of the original into something more euphoric. So instead of lovelorn eyes it’s about happy grins of friendship.
In this way a fantastic track turns into a perfect EP release because there are two equally valid takes on the song. And, thank god, an EP that is great on its own terms without obviously referencing any golden age from dance music’s history.
TracklistA Aria
B Aria (Tiger Stripes Remix)