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Published in house ·

Gorgon City, Katy Menditta, WEISS

Imagination (Weiss Remix)

WEISS stretches Gorgon City's Imagination into a six-minute, groove-led house workout for the 2015 remix EP, leaving Katy Menditta's voice to flicker in and out over the bass.

Review

Genre and Mood

Gorgon City, Katy Menditta and WEISS come together on Imagination (Weiss Remix), a house remix that pulls the original toward the deeper, groovier end of the club. It is deep house with a bass-heavy edge, and the mood is groovy and hypnotic, with an energetic pulse that keeps the floor moving from the first bar to the last.

Song Summary

The original Imagination is a sleek vocal house song, uptempo with deep house influences, about the pull of attraction. WEISS reimagines it for the dance floor: he stretches it past six minutes, puts the groove at its centre and lets Katy Menditta’s voice flicker in and out of the mix. The memorable detail is how the vocal becomes a texture rather than a lead, appearing in teasing fragments that make each full return of the hook feel like a reward.

Musical Breakdown

As a club remix, the track runs 6:12, giving each element room to grow.

Intro

Crisp drums and bass set a tight groove, built for DJs to mix in.

Build-up

The bass grows fuller, with small synth details and fragments of the vocal starting to appear.

Main Section

Katy Menditta’s voice arrives over the full groove, the bass and percussion locked into a hypnotic, rolling pattern.

Bridge

A breakdown pulls the drums away, leaving the vocal and atmospheric textures suspended before the groove returns.

Climax

The full beat comes back in with the vocal hook on top, the remix at its most energetic.

Outro

The arrangement strips back to drums and bass, rolling out cleanly for the next track.

Concepts in Focus

This is a club remix in the classic sense. The remixer keeps the vocal, the part that identifies the song, and rebuilds everything under it at a length that suits a DJ set. Put it next to Gorgon City, Katy Menditta – Imagination and the differences are easy to hear: the original is a song with a beat, the remix is a beat with a song inside it.

The breakdown is where a remix like this breathes. The drums thin or vanish, the voice hangs in the air, and the crowd waits; the return of the full groove is what the whole section is for. It is a structural device you will hear in almost every club track built for a long mix.

What carries the six minutes is the house groove: a steady, rolling pattern of kick, bass and percussion that changes little but never stands still. WEISS made a dub of the song for the same EP, a version with even less of the vocal, which shows how much he trusts the groove to do the work.

Artistic Context

Gorgon City are the London production duo of Kye Gibbon and Matt Robson-Scott, central figures in the UK’s mid-2010s wave of house music that crossed over into the charts. Imagination, featuring Katy Menditta and co-written with Emeli Sandé among others, comes from their debut album Sirens (2014) and was released as a single on Virgin EMI and Black Butter on 17 March 2015. A remix EP followed on 31 March with the Weiss Remix, a Weiss Dub and a Mak & Pasteman remix, and the remix also appears on Sirens (Remixes). WEISS is the UK house producer and DJ Richard Dinsdale, who later scored a club hit of his own with “Feel My Needs” on Toolroom.

Impact and Reception

Imagination reached number 39 on the UK Dance chart and became a bigger airplay hit in Eastern Europe, peaking at number 6 on the CIS airplay chart; it was later certified silver in the UK. The Weiss Remix was made for clubs rather than charts, and it sits comfortably alongside Gorgon City’s own club records such as Gorgon City – Hard On Me. It is here because it shows how a good remix can transform a song while keeping its soul. Play it loud, and let the bassline do the talking.

Learn from this track

Intermediate

What you will learn

  • Compare a radio-length original with a six-minute club remix and name what the remixer changed.
  • Recognise a breakdown and explain what it does for a dancing crowd.
  • Describe how a vocal can become a texture in a remix rather than the lead.

Listening guide

  1. the intro Drums and bass alone, a groove built so a DJ can mix the track in before the song appears.
  2. the build Fragments of Katy Menditta's vocal start to surface over the groove, teasing the hook instead of stating it.
  3. the main section The full vocal over the locked groove; compare how much of the original song is left and how much is new.
  4. the breakdown The drums pull away, leaving voice and atmosphere suspended, the moment that makes the return of the beat hit harder.
  5. the outro The arrangement strips back to rhythm, rolling out cleanly for the next record.

Concepts in this track

breakdown

13 tracks

A section where the beat drops out or thins, leaving pads, melody or vocals. On a dance floor it gives a moment to breathe before the music builds back.

remix

56 tracks

A new version of a recording made by reworking its parts: changing the beat, harmony, tempo or structure, often by another producer. A remix can turn a ballad into a club track.

house groove

26 tracks

The rhythmic signature of house music: a four-on-the-floor kick, off-beat hi-hats and claps on two and four, at roughly 118 to 128 beats per minute.

Listen next, and why

Questions for discussion

  1. The original lasts about three and a half minutes, this remix more than six. What does the extra time give a dance floor that a radio listener does not need?
  2. WEISS also made a dub of the song for the same EP. Why would a remixer release a version with even less of the vocal?
  3. When a vocal appears only in fragments, does it become more or less important?

References

  1. Wikipedia. Imagination (Gorgon City song). Encyclopedia
  2. Wikipedia. Sirens (Remixes). Encyclopedia
  3. Wikipedia. WEISS (musician). Encyclopedia

Weighted overlap of genres, feelings and moods.

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