Artist: Hong Kong Trash
Title: Down The River (2003 Remixes)
Label: White Label
By: Simon Jones | 30 January 2003
Tracklist:

• A1: Alfalfa Experience Mix
• B1: Grasslands Groove
• B2: Mc Buffalo Original Mix

Hong Kong Trash "Down The River (2003 Remixes)"

Hong Kong Trash are Rob Jay, Paul Pringle and Paul Kane (the latter two of which are now Desert). Back in 1997, they produced a track called 'Down The River', which John Digweed supported in many of his sets and on his 'Sydney' cd for Global Underground, with support coming from many other djs also following it's release on Glow and several other labels. Fast forward to 2003 and we find new mixes of the track ready to try and follow in the footsteps of the original, thanks to those people at 3BEAT Music Ltd. The question is, can they succeed?

A deep and trippy percussion line starts off the 'Alfalfa Experience Mix', keeping a tight groove running underneath as things slowly evolve into the main section of the track, echoing stabs pulling in the main synth line which then merges with the percussion underneath and soon the spacious sounds within the break roll over into the beats and the mix finishes on a deep yet uplifting high.

The 'Grasslands Groove' version takes things down a deeper path, with tribal influences becoming evident from the start, and big snares kicking into the groove as the b-line expands and deflates. A nice mix to use for building the mood within a set.

However the gem of the package is the 'Mcbuffalo Original Mix' which still sounds fresh to this day. It's driving percussion line and hard snare rolls soon turn into a pulsating, yet energetic workout as the synths build and build through a series of drops which will draw you in more and more each time. For fans of Digweed's Hong Kong, they will know exactly what this track does and it still does it even today. Without wanting to sound too obvious, this is a 'timeless' piece of production.

The new mixes remain faithful to the Original, but when put side by side, the contest is fairly one sided. However due to the difficulty to obtain this track, you should pick this up regardless, if only for the Mcbuffalo mix.