Artist: X-Trax
Title: Plan 94[The Voyage] (Remixes)
Label: Pied Piper Records
By: Simon Jones | 29 August 2002
Tracklist:

• A: Northface Mix
• B: Weekend World Mix

X-Trax "Plan 94[The Voyage] (Remixes)"

X-Trax's Plan 94 (The Voyage) was a huge track back in the early 90s, being featured on the inaugural Northern Exposure compilation, and becoming hailed as one of the classic tracks of that album. In recent months Sasha has been hammering a new mix of the track to death, and people have been falling over themselves to obtain a copy, well the wait is finally over as the mix can now be revealed to be by Northface, and it is present here with another mix from Weekend World.

Northface rework the track with some deep percussion leading into large rolling bassline from the offset. Synths fire off in the background like an industrial machine warming up it's cogs and components. Staying with the driving pace of the classic original version, they layer synths and effects in a cascading way as the track just loops and builds up to the break, analogue feedback melting into the arrangements being crafted, before everything fades to the uplifting string-ladden break as pure euphoria washes over you as the track lifts into the heavens before coming back to earth for the grand finale. A massive rework that brings the track kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

Martin Cartledge's Weekend World project remains faithful to the original right from the start, the deep and spacey bleeps of the original being evident as the track begins, before being pushed into deeper, trippier territory, subtle percussion and snares simmering away in the background as the track slowly moves along in an almost ambient-esque fashion, going in the opposite direction from which Northface took the track, creating a nice alternative, and rather atmospheric mix in the process.

Pied Piper and Northface have always had a good working relationship, and they have chosen to relaunch the Pied Piper imprint in grand fasion with this reworked classic. One must wonder what else they have planned for the coming months.