Moving totally sucks and blows at the same time. Right now all my records are in boxes in the corner of my room, taunting me with their need to be organized and shelved. That can’t happen until I go to Ikea and buy shelves by the gross though. Until then here are some tunes that were already on my computer.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Sex Bomb Boogie (Magic Flute) (12” single version)
Sex Bomb Dance
Last week I put up Yello’s ‘Oh Yeah’ which was famously featured during the end credits of the seminal 80s pic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Sigue Sigue Sputnik also graced that movie with their lone US hit ‘Love Missle F-11.’ I knew nothing of the band until I picked up this single a few months ago, and had no idea that they were formed by a dude from Generation X (the Billy Idol band). After listening to a few of their tunes I’d have to say that their shit has aged amazingly well, far better than much more popular synth-driven stuff from the same time period. Much like Public Image Ltd., Devo, Big Audio Dynamite and other electronic-influenced post-punk bands I think their influence and lasting appeal is highly underrated.
Anyways, ‘Sex Bomb Boogie’ is totally awesome. I love it because it’s about five steps away from complete chaos but still manages to make you want to dance. The first version is off of the 12” single and is a little longer than the one that appeared on their album. The ‘Sex Bomb Dance’ is some insane dub/stereo mindfuck remix of the remix that fades in and out and back and forth between the left and right speaker. Listening to it with headphones on will make your head implode like those kids in Halloween III.
Freddie Mercury
Love Kills (Extended Version)
The best thing to come out of the horrid 80s remixing of the 1920 classic silent film Metropolis was this track by Freddie Mercury. Like a lot of his solo stuff, it surprisingly sounds nothing like Queen. This extended version is off of the Japanese 12” single.
Giorgio Moroder
Rotwang’s Party (Robot Dance)
The B-side to ‘Love Kills’. This is one of the songs that made up the score to the 880s version of Metropolis, but for some reason it was not included on the soundtrack. I don’t know if this was ever released on CD actually. Pretty good instrumental synth track.
Kraftwerk
Tour De France (French Version)
Tour De France (Remix)
These are remixes of the original Tour De France song, which was released as a single in 1983. Kraftwerk also released an album called Tour De France Soundtracks. These aren’t from that. I hope everyone is sufficiently confused now.
Syntech
Byt&e
Reaction
Syntech is the work of Edwin van der Laag, who was in some group called Laserdance in the 80s. According to this site, they were an influential eurodisco group. I have no idea about that. But if you like corny, spacey techno to listen to while playing Halo 3 or reading the latest Orson Scott Card book then you should especially enjoy it.
Sgue Sigue Sputnik was not only formed by the Generation X dude, it also was the rpoduct of a widespread audition process, where they populated the band based on look and attitude, then spent a year teaching them how to play instruments. Given the last five years, rather visionary, but comparisons to the Monkees were made at the time.
That first Sputnik album, ‘Flaunt It,’ is a masterpiece. The follow-up, ‘Dress for Excess,’ is worth tracking down too. Thanks for the remixes!