Artist: Mark Martini
Title: Quandary
Label: Source Of Gravity Records
By: Chad Harnish | 29 May 2002
Tracklist:

• A: Original Mix
• B: Tipple Remix

Mark Martini "Quandary"

Mark Martini’s ‘Quandary’ is to be released on Source of Gravity in July and has already been churning up the support of John Digweed, Pete Tong, Lee Burridge, Anthony Pappa, and Nick Warren. This kind of support from DJs with large variety in musical taste tells me one thing. This track is a crowd pleaser.

The kick drum that starts off this track is accompanied by a spatial arrangement of high hats and hollow sounds. The bass line is soft and lasting, staying subtly in the background. Before long however, with the percussion dropped, it seems to meld itself into a very deep electronic rendition of a melody. After Mark feels you are comfortable enough with all of the sounds he has just thrown at you, he switches up his drums with a bit of a breakbeat number and then a brief suspension of all things percussion. I only wish he would have run off with the breakbeat for a bit. Pausing just long enough to allow dancers to catch their breath, he pounds it back in helping to introduce a new ear tickler of a sample. The sample is two tiered, playing off itself in a Marco Polo sort of way. It helps keep cohesion in the track while the melody picks up steam and builds itself into a static frenzy. With roughly 2 minutes to spare, ‘Quandary’ drops out the beat again for a moment to allow this track to return the momentum back to where it began. This track is definitely for the dark and curious.

Tipple steps up to the plate to strut his stuff with his take on ‘Quandary’. Opening with a breathy tribal snare fest he successfully builds the anticipation of what is to come. The driving beat comes in and is kept simple. The snares run along very fast but the chugging bass line keeps the track at a nice pace. That’s not to say this track is sluggish. On the contrary, this is a track has enough momentum to be dropped during peak time. Drop this when you want a building reply out of your audience. It most certainly creates a state of uncertainty or perplexity with its soft pauses and quick turns, giving the listener a sense of unknowingness on where this track is going. Tipple has managed to build off of Mark’s signature sounds a great piece of dancefloor music.

DJ, I’ll have another Martini.