According to the band themselves, today is Duran Duran Appreciation Day. I have no idea what that means but I do know that I will be spending a chunk of the day with the New Fab Five blasting from the speakers.
In honor of this momentous occasion - or something - they have made a proper Night Version of album track 'All You Need Is Now' album track "Other People's Lives" available for download from their website, free of charge. My first thought upon hearing the album back in December was: "Girl Panic!" needs a full-on Night Version; while this isn't exactly it, it's pretty damn close.
Even better, the mp3 comes tagged with "All You Need Is Now - Night Versions" in the album tag. More to come?
(You are almost forgiven for the insanity of the formatting of this album. Almost. "Girl Panic!" and/or "Runway Runaway" might do it.)
The whole project reeks of: "we need something to put out with minimal work".
The single alone is an exercise in pointlessness. Not only was exactly no one shouting out for yet more remixes of 'Personal Jesus', the best you can do is Eric fucking Prydz? (I had hope for the Alex Metric remix - because he's pretty fantastic - but even he sounds like he phoned it in.)
Don't even get me started on the remix album itself and it's insane number and configurations of digital only bonus tracks. Wasn't the internet supposed to make record collecting easier?
If this is all you've got left in you, it's time to pack it in, boys.
As I mentioned earlier, These New Puritans have a campaign-summarizing EP coming out in November entitled 'Hidden Remixes'. They announced the track list today and it looks something like this:
A1. Introduction A2. We Want War (SBTRKT Remix) A3. Main Attrakionz 3000 B1. Hologram (Salem Remix) B2. We Want War (Ghost Hunter Remix)
Suckfest. We already bought the - admittedly excellent - SBTRKT Remix on the 'Hidden' bonus EP, though it will be nice to have a physical release of the also pretty good Ghost Hunter remix. That Salem remix appeared on RCRDLBL a few months back and is a total pile, which leaves that Main Attrakionz 3000 thing the only unknown.
Except it's not, as you can listen to it thanks you the wonders of YouTube. I warn you, it's not for the feint of heart:
Garbage. So much for saving the singles campaign at the end with an excellent catch all release. Thanks for nothing.
On a related note, two mixes of "White Chords" have shown up kind of randomly. There's the Forest Swords Remix on RCRDLBL and FACT has a Mordant Music Remix. Neither are amazing but both are perfectly listenable - and loads better than either of the non-"We Want War" mixes we're getting on the proper release.
Going back and forth on Facebook posts with Mr. Active Child himself, it has come to light that there is indeed a split 7" single in the works with himself and tour mates School of Seven Bells.
(Side note: best tour pairing ever.)
It will feature each artist remixing a track from the other. SVIIB are tackling 'Curtis Lane' highlight "I'm In Your Church At Night" - for which there is a new video in the works, I imagine using the original EP version - while forthcoming single and 'Disconnect From Desire' highlight "Heart Is Strange" is getting an Active Child overhaul.
Back in January, the Discodust blog posted a remix of Alphabeat's forthcoming single "Hole In My Heart" by the excellent Sound of Arrows, officially getting my excited for the single - despite it being the wrong choice. [Hello "The Beat Is" or "DJ".] I couldn't wait for the official release to hold a copy in my hands.
Well. Fast forward a bit and here we are, a week before release. A quick gander at the formats tell me that not only have they left off the Sound of Arrows remix in favor of dull club mixes by Wideboys [really?] and Chew Fu [who?], but also that they've put the radio edits of said mixes on the CD single. For no reason, really - they'd comfortably both fit and still be under running time for chart rules. On top of that, it lists at an astonishingly high £3.99.
In discussion with my friend Dean about the situation, he had this to say:
"The music industry seems to want to destroy their own CD sales to prove how much illegal downloads are hurting them."
Time and time again, it seems. Remember the Little Boots CD single fiasco?The only comfort I take is that the digital release is getting the same middle finger stuck up at them. Thanks for nothing.
In trying to see if the b-sides to the These New Puritans "We Want War" 10" were available digitally in the US - hint: they're not - I came across something...not really interesting, just something.
On February 15th, No Bra will release a new single featuring a TNP remix on the b-side.
It was shit the first time around and is still shit, but good for her for hanging on. I'm not going to lie, I'm curious as to what this is all about...sort of.
As a reminder, the "big single" "Munchausen" - completely unsuitable for mixed company and, really, human consumption:
The next La Roux single is "I'm Not Your Toy" - not a choice I really agreed with at first, but I've come around to it. It will - presumably - come backed with a robust remix packages as the previous singles have.
In fact, two of those remixes are popped up on YouTube. There's one from Jack Beats:
There is also one from DatA:
Both fine remixes - particularly the DatA one that takes it to a different place than it originally inhabited. However, neither hold a candle to Skream's "In For The Kill" so both are - on some level - a bit of a disappointment.
One of my favorite albums of last year - Van She's 'V' - is getting a US release later in the year. [I read June somewhere, but I don't know if that's accurate or not.]
Hooray!
When it comes out, it will be paired with a second disc entitled 'Ze Vemixes', which is a Van She Tech overhaul of the album.
Double hooray!
Do we get a tour for a triple hooray? Time will tell...
"The Cat & The Eye" from said album:
Brilliant.
[PS - The new Dragonette single gets better with every listen. Hooray!]
Collecting promo CDRs for exclusive remixes is nowhere near as fun - or satisfying - as promo 12"s. [That said, the whole idea of promo only remixes is quite obnoxious, but at least when you were tracking them down on 12" you had something nice to add to your collection. Not so much with stupid CDRs.]
According to the band themselves, today is Duran Duran Appreciation Day. I have no idea what that means but I do know that I will be spending a chunk of the day with the New Fab Five blasting from the speakers.
