Never knew this was by the Kane Gang, not a clue!! So emerging musician Kurtis Mantronik gives a B-Boy sheen on what was originally a song done by Dennis Edwards of the Temptations with Sideah Garrett. The Dub mix is just a sparser version with some nice Hip Hop samples (you need to put it with the bloody static, I tried filtering it out but it sounded like it was recorded in a Goldfish bowl!)
B-side is funky synth pop and a track off the album, “Miracle”
The trio of Dudley, Langan and Jeczalik soldered on when Trevor Horn threw his toys out of the pram and kicked them off ZTT. Their first release on China Records and a minor hit to boot, it was featured in the famous Tuborg Lager advert. It was the first single released from the album In Visible Silence and see’s them return to some familiar big beats and voice samples.
The 12″ mix is big improvement and takes you on a long journey of sampled sounds. “Hoops And Mallets” is suitably weird and wonderful, even though AON had gone for a less experimental more commercial sound.
Mike shipped this over the other day and I was thinking there wasn’t much O.M.D on here…shocking! Another fave band back in the day this was off one of my favourite albums by them , Junk Culture.
So these are very different versions to the one I’ve been used to, almost techno with the bass line with different vocals and copious use of the Fairlight for some orchestra samples!! Brian Tench produced with the band just wondered who mixed it as it doesn’t say. I think I’ve just found my new favourite OMD track!
This was the first release after Jimmy Sommerville had departed and formed The Communards with Richard Coles. It featured new vocalist John Jøn (John Foster) and they continued to release synth pop with a Hi-Energy tempo, bringing out the album “Truthdare Doubledare” in 1986.
The track got in the cult film “Letter To Brezhnev” and was a return to the original Bronski blueprint that Steve Bronski and Larry Steinbachek had written with hits like “Smalltown Boy” and “Why?”
A very different Mike Thorne interpretation of this track, certainly new to me and probably to my fellow synth heads. He makes it more cinematic with superb sweeping synths added and taking the robotic sequencers of the original out of the mix replacing it with a sampled slap bass. There is a lot of horn synths and it reminds me of some of the old Soft Cell stuff.
The B-sides includes a dub mix by Ian Levine which rattles, frantically around and the regular B- side “I Gave You Everything” starts like a Frankie Goes To Hollywood track and has a lot more sampled sounds on it with what appears real bass and guitar (probably sampled)
And here is the regular 12″ containing the “Instant Mix” and “Instant Dub” (again !) with the mixes completed by Ian Levene (Blackpool producer and original producer of Take That)
Finishing off my posts today with this very interesting slice of dark electronica from 1988. Released only in France by the weirdly named English Boy On The Loveranch which was comprised of Soft Cell’s Dave Ball, drummer the late Nick Sanderson (Clock DVA, Jesus And Mary Chain, The Gun Club) and Jamie Jones adds some vocals, Guy Barker adds some spooky trumpet. Acid bubbles and vocals are cut up and processed. The A-side has been remixed by Flood, all vocoders and synthpop, whilst the B-side is a hypnotic, darker mix by the band themselves. As sleazy as Soft Cell and a companion to their “Sex Dwarf”
With Coldcut , Beatmasters and Bomb the Bass this duo sneaked out this similar early pop house track. A mix of ABC vocals and Chicago “JACK” House and produced by Phil Harding and Ian Curnow. The pretty faces behind Blue Mercedes were Duncan Millar (keyboards) and David Titlow (vocals) released this as there debut 1987, predating piano house. The Terence Yo Yo Mix starts off like Madonna’s “Holiday” and is a more than acceptable dub without those god awful lyrics, blame Pete Waterman.
So on with some dance stuff. A breakthrough hit for Jonathan More and Matt Black and the first appearance of singer Yazz. (Yazmine Marie Evans) From 1988 ( yes 28 years ago!) and a crossover from the underground dance scene, the 7″ saw Coldcut in a sample frenzy, with many old favourites cropping up. So you get a couple of poppier mixes on the A-side with the harder, more instrumental/jazzy mixes on the b-side.
Or a comedy cover by British comedian Julian Clary in his own camp style. Amazingly produced by Rupert Hine (Howard Jones) here it is in it’s full musical version (8 mins long) with some padding out, ad-libs at the end. There is also a parody of a French Torch Song, “Jacques” recorded live and arranged by pianist, the “lovely” Russell Churney.
Keeping the quality of posts going( …..not) a couple of dreadful cover versions.
Why you ask because it’s in tribute to Jezbionic’s occasional series of “How Not To Do A Cover Version” (over here https://dubioustaste.wordpress.com/) and the fact they’ve been hanging around the living room for a while.
Even the static at the can’t make this sound good. Modern Romance murder the original by The Temptations , high pitched blue eyed soul and as about as sincere as Bob Monkhouse (or Keith Chegwin – see video)! Not even the synth drenched cover of Marvin Gaye’s, “Abraham , Martin And John” is listenable (it even has a guitar solo for God sake!). There is a redeeming instrumental track, the Latin fused, bass and saxophone track, “Stranger Days.”
Modern Romance had the cheek to cover Baltimora’s “Tarzan Boy” – Heaven help us, they soon split up after that after releasing the appropriately titled “Burn It.”
The video see’s them perform in all their hirsute glory on Cheggar’s Plays Pop. They’re not on for the full twelve minutes but if you are into masochism you can watch Keith Chegwin at work. 🙂
Keeping on the dance theme today with the classic electro/ disco, early R&B sound of the S.O.S. Band from Atlanta, Georgia. This compilation contains all the extended versions for fans of a 12″ version and was released in 1987. It was edited and mixed by a couple of German DJ/ producers, Mike P. Heisel and Hardy Haas and for a vinyl album is probably at maximum capacity (40 minutes at 33 rpm there is nearly 50 minutes on here!)
The entire first side was written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and they all sound quite similar with that signature beat and synth bass. Again the pair have writing credits on the second side, along with the late Harry Clayton and Sigidi Abdullah It gets quicker with the Janet Jackson/ Prince sounding “No Lies” (where I’ve put the 2 mixes as one track) Madonna definitely listened to the last track, robbing cow!
The vinyl is quite worn (especially side 2) but I’ve kept it “as heard”, if you want clean it up yourselves go for it.
The S.O.S. is an abbreviation for Sounds Of Success.
myvinyldreams 