John Askew - The Witch [2010]

[sszecret]

Release Date: 20 December 2010
Catalog Number: DISCOVER69

Description

The Witching hour is here.

John Askew delivers this mammoth riff based monster in time for Halloween weekend. The track builds and builds -- opening up the full armoury of sounds till every single frequency is overloaded to breaking point -- before dropping to a deranged breakdown where the horror takes hold.

The kick in shows absolutely no mercy.

With early support from Armin van Buuren, John O'Callaghan, Simon Patterson and Sean Tyas - this is dark, hard teethsmashing trance for the peak of peak time.

Original Mix


Bar none my favorite Askew track. Absolutely balls to the wall, but in the best possible way. It even has this pretty interesting vocal sample in the break, but I've never been able to pin down a source. If anybody knows where it's from, feel free to chime in (no pun intended).

Robberies are increasing as you know
The police have got to stop them
But these creatures are of another world
I'm sorry to admit that we're helpless
You can't stop them using weapons
I would suggest attempting something else
I think you must capture one,
That's the only way we might learn about them
So, I want you to watch all the large jewellery stores
As you no doubt realize,
This is the first stage of an insidious invasion
By which all of earth is threatened with ultimate destruction
Mankind is depending on you

 

[dmgtz96]

It was an interesting concept.
The bassline could have been interesting, though, and I think it was this track that defined Askew's style for the next several years... which could be good or bad depending on your viewpoint of Askew.

The Witch really is one of those tracks that hits better live or in a DJ set:

 

[dmgtz96]

10 years later...
I am honestly amazed at the sheer energy of this track. Very little trance has that raw, triumphant feeling of pure energy. Not even Will Atkinson's productions come close (except for maybe Sun Slip).
Still unsure if this is one of the best trance tracks of the 2010s, and I don't know if it should have been made more complex or interesting. What is true is that I'd probably have gone nuts had I heard it live on a big sound system.
Props? to John Askew for making this.

 

[MDD]

Good track to run to. I found myself always running quicker after the build.

The live vid makes you just want to party and be there