There is the only way to adequately describe Arno Cost & Arias’ first release Magenta – immense. This track has been kicking around for some months now and it is not hard to see why it has found its way into the CD wallets of big jocks like Axwell, Paolo Mojo and Eric Prydz. It is now set for a local release through Hussle and is packaged with a couple of tasty remixes.

With a pulsating side-chained bassline, a soaring yet simple melodic line and Pryda-esque synth loops laced throughout, Magenta crosses the genre boundaries to be nothing more than a sublime cut of electronic music. Uplifting, driving and melodic, this is big-room house through and through. Having already heard this on a club system, I can vouch for the spine-tingling, hair-raising, butt-shaking, hands-in-the-air impact of this track.

Dave Spoon of Toolroom Records fame is first up on remix duties and he adds his signature crunching sound right off the bat. A squelchy bass and plenty of squeaks takes the original into darker territory. He uses the melody of the original as a welcome respite to the pounding beats and turns out a cool, grinding tech-house tune.

The weak link here is the Tom Novy remix which is surprisingly lifeless. While he clearly wants to add an electro-tech spin, the production qualities let this one down with the original melody meandering aimlessly along without any real purpose. This sounds like a remix by numbers.

This tasty little package is rounded out by a Durrant & Riley remix which manages to keep the big room feel of the original while adding (for lack of a better term), more of a tech-trance element. Now for many people the mere mention of trance is enough to press the skip button but this one really nails the genre on the nose. Huge ravey pads and plenty of reverb and delay make this a 3am belter.

Overall, this is one of the strongest releases of 2007 to date.