Opium

Opium is an old band from Russia, where they started in 1987 under the name Cold Attitude and only adopted the name Opium in 1991. During this time they also participated in several other projects with other musicians. Until then, all of their songs were in Russian. But Miroslav moved to Israel and met a good friend of mine, Liav, and they started making new songs in English.

And after several demos, some EPs and having some of their songs released on CD, they signed with the record label A Different Drum in the United States, where they released the album Too Many Miles between Us.

This CD is a double, limited edition with the second disc being only remixes, and talking to my friend Liav he gave me the opportunity to remix one of their songs, and asked me to remix “Too Much To Handle” which I loved from the first time I heard it and finished it in February 2004.

When I finished it in a very short time, even though they didn’t give me any deadline since they hadn’t finished recording their original songs yet, I sent it to the band, who loved my remix, and it was considered one of the best ever made of their songs.

“Hey Freddy. Now I got it. Wow, it’s beautiful, it really is. One of the best mixes any artist did for us 🙂 You are one talented guy!”

Liav

But Todd from ADD said that the extra CD of Remixes was already finished and mastered, and he couldn’t put my remix on it anymore, even though he also liked it a lot. And not even the band knew that. Todd asked me for a copy and promised to release it on a compilation from his record label as soon as possible as an exclusive track on Opium.

I waited until Miroslav contacted me, praising my remix again and asking for an instrumental version for vocalist Iliya to perform at a Depeche Mode Party in Vladivostok. It was the first time that one of my productions was being performed live, and since then it has been used in all of the band’s live performances.

“Thanks you very much for the remix on “Too much to handle”. I like it very much! I am sure it will help us to make first steps into a synthpop world. Singer Iliya likes your remix very much and want to use it to upcoming performance he will have soon from DM party in Vladivostok. My wife also like your mix very much”

Miroslav

As I soon started producing my remix album Synthphony REMIXed! Vol.2, I invited Opium to participate with another song that I also really liked, “Faked Emotions”. Also with an incredible melody and vocals, it was a great track to work on. I got a result that I’m very proud of, and it’s undoubtedly one of the best on the album.

I took advantage of the fact that I had to give the remix a different name, and I named it Vladivostok in honor of the city that had the first live performance of one of my works.

  1. Virtual Server “Why (Would I) [Hajas 2K4 RMX]”
  2. Droom “Blood Culture [Hajas Arena Mix]”
  3. Real Life “Painless [Hajas 5T4T3 RMX]”
  4. Opium “Faked Emotions [Hajas Vladivostok Mix]”
  5. Tristraum “I’m Under No One [Hajas SWOS Mix]”
  6. New Concept “Station Man [Hajas NER Mix]”
  7. Anything Box “Clean [Hajas Hope Mix]”
  8. !Distain “Sex’n’Cross [Hajas Universal Mix]”
  9. Project David “We’ll Go On [Hajas Dark Mix]”
  10. The Dignity of Labour “XRV [Hajas Rio Mix]”
  11. Color Theory presents Depeche Mode “Sweetest Perfection [Hajas Sloth Mix]”
  12. Will Loconto and Steve Paul “The Last Good Day [Hajas Lost Mix]”

Throughout the year, my remix of “Too Much To Handle” ended up being played a lot on Slothradio, a renowned online synthpop radio station at the time, getting great feedback. It ended up being released in an incredible collection called State Of Synthpop 2005 by ADD with no less than 6 CDswith the best Synthpopworks of that year.

Disc 3

  1. The Azoic “Illuminate”
  2. Syrian “Space Overdrive”
  3. Fr/Action “The Living and the Dead”
  4. Eight to Infinity “Age / Sex / Location”
  5. Michigan “Red Dawn”
  6. Opium “Too Much to Handle (Hajas Mix)”
  7. Rename “You Don’t Deserve My Love”
  8. Universal Poplab “Casanova Fall”
  9. Macondo “Local Boyz”
  10. Empire State Human “Dollar In Blue Collar (2005 Single Mix)”
  11. Provision “Visualize”
  12. Moulin Noir “Media Boy”
  13. Paul Luckey “Wonderland”
  14. Children Within “Butterfly”
  15. The Electroluvs “This is the Life”