3 years ago, during the celebration of 300 episodes of the world-known radio show Hardwell On Air, Hardwell premiered an interesting new collaboration between Olly James, MOTi, and Kenneth G titled ‘Omen’. It was released in February 2017 and received massive support afterward. Sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? Well, yes, but the history behind the track is a lot more intriguing.
The story begins in the second part of 2015, two years before the initial release. MOTi‘s discography enjoyed its best days with huge support from the industry’s biggest heavyweights such as Tiesto, Blasterjaxx, W&W and much more. The project on ‘Omen’ started in the summer of 2015 when MOTi noticed some hardstyle legends, including Headhunterz with whom MOTi initially worked on ‘Celestial’ (the first title of the track), started experimenting with bigroom house. Alongside Headhunterz, names like DBSTF, Crystal Lake & DJ Isaac also commenced with their venture into the bigroom territory. During Amsterdam Dance Event, MOTi premiered a ton of new music, including the aforementioned ‘Celestial’.
The intro started with Headhunterz‘ famous leads followed by an aggressive buildup which led the listeners to MOTi‘s signature drop. The rest of the track devolved around the similar structure.
Shortly after the premiere, rumors of Headhunterz returning to hardstyle started circulating and MOTi was left with nothing else but to look for another collaborator. He contacted DBSTF who refused to finish the track so MOTi announced his new collaborators, big room talents Olly James and Kenneth G. The final version sounded a lot different than the original one. The title was also changed to ‘Omen’. The drop was completely changed with only the breakdown remaining intact. A lot of fans found the original version much better and left kind of disappointed but, I am certain that ‘Omen’ grew on a lot of people.
Written by Devanesh / Delacour Agency
