Artist: Beta vs Mesmer
Title: Tetris
Label: Scarcity [SCAR04]
Release Date: 2009-12-24
Tracklisting:
01. Original Mix
02. Retroid Remix
03. Jariten Remix
04. Quentin’s High Score Remix

A tasty Christmas treat coming from Mesmer’s burgeoning Scarcity label, featuring remixes by Retroid, Johan Soh AKA Jariten, and Quentin.

Original Mix
Tetris starts out like a run-of-the-mill proggy breaks tune, with a standard breakbeat and ethereal synth stabs. But what comes next I found to be rather refreshing. A light and pleasant sprinkle of bleeps slowly fades in to the mix (which indeed sound very much like they came from the eponymous computer game), followed by heavy, rolling bass at the first breakdown. Multiple layers of synths, a plethora of Beta’s signature stutters and stalls, as and a host of tight percussion give the tune its progressive credentials, but the bassline is all nu-skool. It’s hard to tell who had a hand in what, because these two producers’ styles are quite similar, but either way a Beta and Mesmer collab has been long overdue, if you ask me.

Retroid Remix
Had I heard this in a club, I don’t think I would have initially guessed it was a Retroid remix. Pretty much everything from the original version has been beefed up or tweaked here, including the kicks, the massive Hybrid-like bass, and now-gated lead synth line. The Hungarian breaks don has also added his own original production to the breakdown, which fits in well, to his credit. This is definitely peak-time business.

Jariten Remix
The Bearded man’s rework is a more subdued affair if there ever was one. A new bassline and new synth pads are brought together over the original melody, with a quirky broken beat that is offset every 8 bars. The one thing this remix, the Retroid remix, and original have in common is a mean bassline–all different, but equally nasty. This isn’t my favorite of the bunch, but it’s definitely enjoyable.

Quentin’s High Score Remix
This housed up version of Tetris features very little from the original, most notably the supporting synth pads. Expect a classic 4/4 beat, some deep house synths, and a very discrete Rob Base sample in there, too, for good measure. Not my cup of tea, as you might expect, but surely there’s a time and a place for it. The original and Retroid versions are the clear winners in this package, as far as I’m concerned.