DJ Robbie Rivera has had a rather prolific career. He scored a few No. 1 hits on the Billboard Dance charts in the early 2000s – “Feel This 2001,” “The Hum Melody,” “Burning,” and “Which Way You’re Going” – and continues to be a top draw both as a DJ and producer.
His latest release, already getting big-name support from Kaskade, Paul Oakenfold, Deniz Koyu, and Thomas Gold, is the A World Without You EP, based on his collaboration with StoneBridge and vocalist Denise Rivera. The EP includes their original cut and four remixes.
The original might be a bit understated for the festival circuit. Shimmering synth washes play off punctuated piano chords and light percussion. Like many old-school dance music hits, the time signature doesn’t hit you over the head with a hard 4/4 kick-drum beat. Rather, it swings in a two-step time.
Yet, like modern EDM, there’s a build and breathy vocals, which makes it perfect for remixing.
Benny Benassi, out of the group, keeps many of the initial elements in tact. Known for “Satisfaction,” this electro house producer injects a strong 4/4 beat while retaining the synths and piano chords. A chromatic scale gives it some dissonance, while later, parallel keyboard lines, in lower and higher octaves, beef up the instrumentation.
S-Man, Roger Sanchez’s underground techno alter ego, stops by for a dub remix. As is the trend across the board in EDM, remixes turn into a producer’s own tracks, and that’s essentially what Sanchez does here. Most of the original elements get stripped out for a glitchy, minimal track of brief phrases playing off each other. It’s all about the rhythm and repetition from a few groups of notes; melody gets chopped up, and it’s up to the listener to put it together over the off-beat pulse.
Less Hate then throws in a Deep Mix, which pulls from now-standard deep and future house characteristics. A light 4/4 pervades the track, complimented by a prominent cymbal back beat. Here, the producer introduces more synths while zeroing in on the repetitive aspects of the track.
The Juicy Dub closes out the EP. In a sense, the production, featuring a prominent air horn, harks back to Rivera’s heyday. Only, what’s here sounds much like something Alex Gaudino would’ve put out, albeit with a trippy feel and amped up percussion. Out of the EP, this would best fit in an Ibiza club night.
A World Without You comes out on Rivera’s own Juicy Music on Nov. 2.