01: 'Mirage' (Original Mix)
Abetted by their mentor Paul Thomas, Shadow of Two launched in September of 2014 with 'Lucir' - a thoroughbred genre-meshing track-trailblazer! What followed was an abundance of deck-love, from an appreciably broad range of DJs and press praise aplenty ("Trance x House, minus the Trouse!" analysed one dance publication). A more than healthy debut inside Beatport's top 10 sealed its deal and a floor follow-up was quickly on order!
With 'Mirage', London-based producers Shadow of Two deliver that with aplomb, and with it give VANDIT Record's their very first club-strike in their landmark 15th anniversary year.
Having known each other for a good few years, Stuart Browne and Richard Smith decided to hit the studio together, back in the early spring of 2014, teaming up as Shadow Of Two.
Stuart had previously been part of the duo Lay & Browne, who had releases on labels like Funkagenda's Funk Farm imprint, Marco V's In Charge, High Contrast and others. Richard meanwhile had been part of Dirty Stop Outs, likewise another prog house pairing and the source of a string of club rockers on labels including Btwisted, Riseup, Freegrant Music and Virtual Love. Both experienced artists in their own rights, they'd collectively played some of the UK's biggest venues, Pacha, Egg, Lightbox, Warehouse Project, Sankeys and the Ministry of Sound to name but a few.
Their debut 'Lucir' affected a prompt tear up the download charts, bagging no small amount of press attention along the way… In their review, MIXMAG trumpeted the track as being "chock-full of luminous melody, nagging, attention-grabbing sub-riffs" and had a "mainline that builds slowly, but ever so surely into a right old skyscraper!" Hey, we could've put it no better ourselves!
Every bit 'Lucir's kindred studio spirit, 'Mirage' is another prime piece of electronic music real estate. Again Stuart & Richard deftly and stylistically flirt with percentage degrees of at least three of electronic music's sub-genres. Like us though, you'll find it impossible to neatly pigeonhole it into one. Call it trance, progressive or house, or all points in between, 'Mirage' delivers 3D, 4G and 5K sonics to dazzlingly launch a new electronic music year!!
2015 starts here!
Dimitri Kechagias review: The beloved trance label Vandit records headed by the legend Paul van Dyk starts 2015 with an exceptional release that gives trance good name and raises its reputation even higher. The upcoming duo Shadow Of The Two deliver the track with the loud and proud title Mirage. They say never judge a book from the cover but in our case the content of the track under this glorious title is truly impressive and will make many heads in the clubs turn towards the dj booth and shazzam the tune to find out what is this magnificent anthem that is playing from the speakers and transforms the environment into a happy colourful space. Mirage is exactly very optimistic, hopeful progressive trancer with great drive, incredible amounts of energy and most importantly summery sunny balearic melodies and positive rhythm that can carry away even the cold hearted person on this planet and beyond. Chunky grooves, energetic pulsating basslines, spacious sparkling melodies and even more brilliant breakdown that allows the melodic themes to develop even further by adding further melodic layers and orchestral style strings to give it more texture and complexity. The climax is full on hands in the air with all the right amounts of euphoria that you need in the first hour of your dj set that you warm up your crowd for the big tunes without implying though that in the right dj set Mirage can be easily your peak time choice too. Happy New Vandit Year 2015! #PureGold Love It
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