Review
Genre and Mood
Noir & Haze made the song, but Solomun made Around (Solomun Vox) the deep house anthem of 2011. It is house music at its most emotional: a rolling electronic groove that is hypnotic in the body and melancholic in the heart, carried by a voice full of longing.
Song Summary
At its core, “Around” is a simple, aching song of longing, sung by Haze with a soft, slightly smoky tone. Solomun’s vocal mix wraps that voice in a slow-building, bass-heavy groove: a deep, warm bassline, crisp but restrained drums and dark, moody chords that rise and fall like breathing. The result feels intimate and huge at the same time, a sad song you can dance to for seven minutes.
Musical Breakdown
The mix is built for the long arc of a DJ set, taking its time before letting the vocal bloom.
Intro
A steady kick and shuffling hi-hats open the track, with the bassline creeping in low and round.
Build-up
Moody chords and small melodic details gather above the groove, and fragments of the vocal begin to surface.
Verse 1
Haze’s voice arrives in full, soft and close, delivering the lyric with a weary tenderness that cuts through the beat.
Main Section
The groove locks in completely, the bass rolling under the vocal and the chords swelling, a hypnotic stretch that made dancefloors sing along.
Bridge
A breakdown pulls the drums away, leaving the voice and chords suspended, the most emotional moment of the mix.
Climax
The kick returns and everything lands together, the bassline at its heaviest and the vocal at its most yearning.
Outro
The layers ease away, leaving the drums and bass to roll out into the next record.
Concepts in Focus
The Solomun Vox is a remix that overtook its original. The first digital release on Noir Music in June 2011 carried Noir & Haze’s own extended version, an acoustic version and an instrumental beside two Solomun mixes, this vocal mix at 6:59 and a Solomun Dub at 6:26. When Defected licensed the record in 2012, the Solomun Vox took side A1. Compare the vocal mix with the dub: the dub keeps the groove and drops most of the singing, which shows how much of the remix’s identity lives in the rhythm section.
That rhythm section is led by the bassline. Solomun’s sound has been described as house music “with deep, ultra funky basslines, euphoric melodies and emotionally charged vocals”, and Around is a textbook example. Listen to how the bass moves under the voice all the way through; even in the breakdown, it is the return of the bass with the kick that makes the drop feel like a release.
Artistic Context
Noir is the Danish DJ and producer René Kristensen, based in Aalborg, who founded the Noir Music label in 2007; Around was released there on 6 June 2011, catalogue NMB037, credited to Noir & Haze with Haze on vocals. Solomun, born Mladen Solomun in Travnik in 1975 and raised in Hamburg, had founded the Diynamic label with Adriano Trolio in 2005 and released his album Dance Baby in 2009. Around was the remix that took him from the Hamburg scene to the world’s biggest clubs.
Impact and Reception
Resident Advisor named the Solomun Vox its Remix of the Year 2011, and Groove magazine ranked it the second-best remix of the year in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; in 2012 Mixmag named Solomun its DJ of the Year. Defected’s 2012 12-inch added mixes by MURK and Subb-an. It is here because it is the perfect sad-happy dance record. Play it loud, close your eyes and sing along.
