The original packs quite a punch, even though it only clocks in at under 80 BPM! Beyonce reads her man's new woman like a trashy novel in this angry-diva track. This one is totally appropriate for the clubs.The vocals are delivered in a manner that would make doing a 125 to 130 BPM remix quite challenging. See the two extremes of mixes that were done for "Check On It" some months back by Maurice Joshua and Junior Vasquez. Maurice had slowed down the vocal to a crawl while Junior made Beyonce sound like she was a chipmunk on speed. This time, the Freemasons, who do the remixing honors slow down the vocal. And it doesn't sound like it will take a week for the mix to finish playing.
The production is flawless. The intro and beginning build is their usual best. The chugging bass and haunting violins are just awesome. The mix has a retro vibe with these strings. The vocals are reverbed to perfection over the production. Towards the last 4/5 of the club mix, some interesting vocal effects come in, and the "whomp whomp" instrumental portions are really cool. Those portions call to mind the ferocious Timo Maas mix of "Dooms Night" by Azzido Da Bass. It is unclear whether that's was being referenced by the Freemasons. Either way, it works. One other noteworthy part of the mix is where the last word in the line "you ain't never seen a fire like the one I'm gon' cause" is stretched and looped into oblivion. Truly amazing. Now if there was only a hot dub of this mix with some choice vocal samples. The U.S. 12" promo includes an instrumental of the club mix as well. The radio edit of the Freemasons mix is just what the name says it is, with the profanity edited out.
The Freemasons' execution of this mix is just perfect. Look out for this one and snap it up immediately.
