Obligatory Cinema Oblivia plug. Many new episodes since my last post, including an episode with Alex Navarro, formerly (sadface) of Giant Bomb! Check it out! And remember, if you like it, leave a good review on iTunes or whatever other podcast service you grab it from (if they allow reviews) and tell your friends!

Okay, done shilling. Kind of a short post this week about some tracks that are pretty stupid. Sorry it’s not something more substantial. Not only can I still not go out to buy records right now thanks to Japan’s pitiful vaccine rollout, pretty much all the super-interesting stuff I yet to write about that is in my queue requires some substantial research and in some cases some translation work by the boyfriend. Also, there’s been some bad family stuff going on lately that has made it hard for me to sit down and really write something substantial.

I really want to do those albums justice, so I wouldn’t feel right shitting out something flippant and silly about them.

However, tonight’s music, yeah, I’m okay with doing that.

Pink Floyd – Is There Anybody Out There (Junior Vasquez Remix)
Pat Benatar – Love Is a Battlefield (Junior Vasquez Remix)

These are a pair of remixes from a 12″ white label bootleg that I bought…I don’t know when and I don’t know where. I definitely grabbed it pre-pandemic. I might have even snagged it the last time I was in America two years ago. Shit like this usually doesn’t it make it over to Japan, they have better taste over here.

These remixes are credited to Junior Vasquez. Maybe that’s the case? Maybe not? I have no idea. I find it highly doubtful that Vasquez was putting out bootleg house mixes of Pink Floyd and Pat Benatar in 2000. He probably had better (and more profitable) things to do at that point. But hey, who knows? Maybe the dude just wanted to make some 10+ minute remixes of tunes that he really dug, and he just happened to choose Pink Floyd and Pat Benatar? Sure, why not?

I’m sure there’s plenty of reasons why not, but let’s not get too negative here.

These remixes are fun. They’re stupid as fuck. But they’re fun. The Pink Floyd remix is barely Pink Floyd. Aside from the titular vocal sample, nothing else from the source material is incorporated into the “remix.” Still, it’s not bad. Has a good energy, and that’s a good sample, obviously.

The Pat Benatar remix draws substantially more from the original version. Variations of the melody play throughout most of the track, and more of Benatar’s vocals are incorporated into the tune. Good breakdown in the middle too. It reminds me of Faithless a bit, and makes me wish that Pat Benatar would’ve done some house collaborations like Sarah McLachlan or Tori Amos. She could’ve had her own “Silence” or “Blue Skies!”

Again, I doubt these are actually Junior Vasquez remixes. I didn’t spend a lot of time digging to find out, but I couldn’t find them on any official releases or on any proper Vasquez mix. I would guess that if they were real remixes by Vasquez, he would’ve put them into his sets at some point, right? But again, I could be wrong. I could also be an idiot and missed a super obvious way to find this out. If I am an idiot and did miss a super obvious way to find this out, let me know in the comments.

Just don’t call me an idiot, leave that implied.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 10th, 2021 at 10:37 pm and is filed under remixes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.