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Favourite remixes

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I was watching a fair bit of the Bowie weekend on bbc4 and they showed clips of The Next day which marked his surprise comeback after a few years out of the news.
The bonus cd contained Love is Lost (Hello Steve Reich mix by James Murphy) which is perhaps my favourite remix ever. Juyst visited Youtube for this post and the video is pretty cool too.
What are your favourite remixes:

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Comments

  3. I’ve been listening again to The Next Day. Brilliant album.

    When I first heard the Sgt Pepper remix, I was stunned by the introductory track and Within You Without You. However, the Love mashup with Tomorrow Never Knows is fabtastic.

  5. I think the answer is, as it so often is, David Sylvian. Both Blemish and Manafon have superb accompanying official remix albums (respectively, The Good Son vs The Only Daughter and Died In The Wool) that soften up the ‘random scratches and beeps’ vibe of the originals a bit, for slightly less abrasive listening. And there’s a fellow on YouTube called Modesto Muñiz who’s obviously a big fan of both albums and has done a few excellent unofficial remixes of some of the tracks.

  6. I could take this thread to a hamper with Andrew Weatherall remixes alone, but let’s content ourselves with this, where he takes a bog standard latter day Primal Scream tune and transforms it into nine minutes of euphoric yet melancholy disco bliss

  13. Bowie’s Sunday remixed by Moby. Delightfully irrational false ending and some quite elegant touches – by no means a doof doof doof remix:

    Aggro Mix of Depeche Mode’s Never Let Me Down. Somebody’s hitting the drums very, very hard indeed.

    Depeche Mode again, with 1984’s “Are People People?” a remix in the broadest possible sense as it samples the host song only very slightly. Adrian Sherwood is the culprit and based his Fats Comet and the Big Sound song “Bop Bop” on the main riff running through this.

    • On the subject of FGTH……there was an album by German remixers Blank & Jones a few years ago which had remixes (more reconstructions) of a number of ZTT tracks. Their 11 min long take on Frankies “Power Of Love” is superb (with a 3 min or so opening with Anne Dudleys strings…..)

      If you look on YouTube, there are a couple of videos of them in the studio doing these…..

  17. I love 80s remixes, even though some can be a bit clunky. They actually sound like different versions of the song in question, whereas later you can listen to remixes and not have a clue what the track is that’s being remixed, wondering if any part of the track is even used in the remix. I have a playlist of my favourite remixes on my iPod that I listen to a lot when I’m in the kitchen. As a fan, and collector, of Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Frankie Goes To Hollywood and The KLF remixes are a very important part of their catalogue, where often the remix becomes the definitive version.

    Here’s some of my favourite 80s remixes (and a couple of KLF ones from the early 90s) that I’ve listened to so much they are practically imprinted in my brain. The perfect accompaniment to making dinner or washing up.

    Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls [Dance Mix]
    Pet Shop Boys – Suburbia [The Full Horror]
    Stephen Duffy – Kiss Me [US Remix – Extended]
    Sigue Sigue Sputnik – Love Missile F1-11 [Extended Ultra Violence Remix]
    Depeche Mode – Everything Counts [In Larger Amounts]
    Depeche Mode – Never Let Me Down Again [Split Mix]
    David Bowie – Loving The Alien [7″ Remix]
    The Stranglers – Always The Sun [Sunny Side Up Mix]
    The Art Of Noise – Close (To The Edit) [Closely Closely (Enough’s Enough)]
    Wham! – I’m Your Man [Extended Stimulation]
    New Order – The Perfect Kiss [Extended]
    New Order – Thieves Like Us [12″ Mix]
    New Order – Touched By The Hand Of God [12″ Mix]
    New Order – Bizarre Love Triangle [Shep Pettibone Remix]
    Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Rage Hard [The Young Person’s Guide To The 12″ Mix]

    And, at the risk of turning this into a thread about Frankie, the best of all the 80s remixes…

    • I’d be totally with you on those New Order remixes, if you replaced the TBTHOG track with a a True Faith remix (maybe Shep Pettibone). The BLT track, in particular, is sublime. I wonder if other Shep Pettibone remixes are as good, even when not working with such good source material. He has worked with a lot of musicians including:

      Afrika Bambaataa , Art of Noise, The B-52’s, Bananarama, Bee Gees, Belinda Carlisle, The Belle Stars, Betty Boo, Bros, Cathy Dennis, Communards, Cyndi Lauper, Daryl Hall, David Bowie, David Essex, Debbie Gibson, Debbie Harry, Depeche Mode, Diana Ross, Duran Duran, Dusty Springfield, Elton John, Erasure, Falco, Five Star, Gary Barlow, George Benson, George Michael, Gloria Gaynor, Huey Lewis & The News, Janet Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Kim Wilde, Labelle, Level 42, Lionel Richie, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, Lisa Stansfield, Loleatta Holloway, Love and Money, Luther Vandross, Madonna, Mariah Carey, MC Hammer, Metallica, Miami Sound Machine, Michael Bolton, Michael McDonald, Natalie Cole, Nick Kamen, Nu Shooz, Olivia Newton-John, Paul McCartney, Paula Abdul, Pet Shop Boys, Phil Collins, Phyllis Nelson, Pia Zadora, Pointer Sisters, Prince, Psychedelic Furs, Run-D.M.C., Seal, Shakespears Sister, Sheena Easton, Sister Sledge, Slade, Stewart Copeland, S-xpress, Taylor Dayne, Technotronic, Terence Trent D’arby, Terry Lewis, Third World, Thompson Twins, Tina Turner, Wang Chung, Whitney Houston.

      Lots to check out.

          • Listened to Movement last night, probably first time in several decades, way better than I remembered. I think some of the New Order examples above e.g. Perfect Kiss are full length versions rather than remixes, they were just cut down for the album and/or 7 inch single.

            • Movement finally clicked with me a couple of years ago. Dreams Never End is in my NO top 10, it being the second song I saw them do live (after opener Age of Consent).

              Movement always seemed a flop after PC&L (which I bought first) but, when viewed as a third JD album, it is progression from Closer.

              In Tiggs-style sacrilege, make your own “Movement Plus” by inserting Ceremony, Procession & Everythings Gone Green into the running order. Much better!

    • I’d also recommend the Keep The Peace Mix, basically a “Best of” all the other Two Tribes remixes – I think it might have been the last of the many official mixes to be released at the time, on cassette only for decades, though it’s now on a few CD comps… 15 minutes of carnage, fantastic!

      • I could go on forever choosing Frankie remixes. When I listened to my iTunes library from A to Z a few years ago I got to Frankie and listened to 20+ versions of some of the tracks. My other favourite Two Tribes remix is the Perfecto Mix.

    • I was scrolling down with the hope no one had beaten me to either of these Aeroplane ones. Both sublime.

      Their version of the Au Reviour Simone track Another Likely Story takes some beating too

  20. I love remixes when they are done RIGHT and the opportunity is taken to turn a song into an entirely new thing.

    My crown for best remixers of all time must go to The Avalanches for their work in the early nineties (their remixing mojo went off a bit after that). Here are three sterling efforts where they absolutely elevate slightly boring source material into thrilling cosmic dreams….

    The Concretes – Chico
    Belle and Sebastian – I’m A Cuckoo
    Badly Drawn Boy – The Shining



  25. Dubmaster Paul “Groucho” Smykle – famous for his great work on Black Uhuru’s “The Dub Factor” and other Sly & Robbie tunes – did a killer remix of King Sunny Adé’s “Ja Funmi” (off “Juju Music”). Basically, if you like King Sunny Adé and you like dub music, it’s an absolute must …

  27. Vince Clarke has done some great remixes. His version of Doves by Future Islands is excellent;

    Some more I like;

    Depeche Mode – Useless (The Kruder & Dorfmeister Session) (Was once on a Word CD IIRC)

    Depeche Mode – Should Be Higher (Jim Scluvanos remix)

    Human League – Never Let Me Go (Aeroplane remix)

    Here is a playlist of mine with plenty on

  30. I make no apologies for banging on about Depeche Mode remixes. I have heard this one played in shops and cafes a few times. It’s a lovely version of Dream On.

    This Rex the Dog remix of Photographic all but commands your feet to go crazy!

    In early 1983 this remix of Get the Balance Right! made ears prick up in Detroit as house music started to take hold.

  40. Norwegian cosmic disco fiends turn Room Without A Key by The Rubies (nah, me neither) into a lovely lush blissed out Balearic treat. Listen to this and remind yourself that summer will come again

  46. Only slightly tweaked from the original, without spoiling it. A good thing, I reckon.

    (Donna Summer “State Of Independence” Remastered and expanded)

      • It sounded to me that when Stevie was making last year’s Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate he must have had The Crown on his mind.
        (Also, as mentioned elsewhere wrt New Order, that track is neither a remix or even an extended version – it’s just the whole thing n’est ce pas?).

        • Yes you’re right – in its 7″ format the song is split into parts 1 and 2.

          I had the 12″ in the early 80s and in my mind that puts into remix/extended version category – but it it’s just one very long song.

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