Hercules And Love Affair – The 50 Pound Note Mix

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Athene
Ex Ex Ex (Andrew Butler Hercules Mix) by In Flagranti
Roar
Chance (HALA Remix) by Babytalk
A&E (HALA Remix) by Goldfrapp
I’m Telling You
Classique #2
You Belong (Hercules Club Mix)
Falls (HALA Remix) by Bostro Pesopeo
Bad Romance (HALA Dub Remix) by Lady GaGa
Situation (HALA Remix) by Yazoo
I Can’t Wait
Get Myself Together (HALA House Mix) by Chaz Jankel
Blind (Frankie Knuckles Dub)

“Ohh…ohh…”

A good chunk of my musical education came from Julien. We grew up in the same town, came out around the same time, were opposites in many ways, yet he could make me laugh like no one else and 20 years later I still think of him as a close friend. We gravitated to opposite coasts; he lives in New York City, and I live in San Francisco. Julien loves house music and I have several cassette compilations he made for me of his “most influential tracks”.

Hercules And Love Affair’s Andy Butler grew up in Denver listening to house and disco music, and he too gravitated to New York. Andy gets it. While he’s able to score critical and commercial success by collaborating with Antony, he’s also able to craft some of the most down ‘n’ dirty Chicago House tracks this side of 1988 – tracks that feel like it’s 4am in an illegal basement club, packed wall-to-wall with dancers, while condensation drips from the ceiling. In other words, tracks I could have pulled right off Julien’s cassettes.

This is not a gay “WHOO WHOO” throw your hands in the air sort of mix, it’s something to immerse yourself in and let yourself go. It’s funky, trippy, hypnotic, and builds to a beautiful release.

Underworld Vol. 1 – The 50 Pound Note Mix
(Original upload date 10 September 2007)

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Peggy Sussed (Pete Heller Vocal)
Vanilla Monkey (Martinez Hungry Ghost Mix)
JAL To Tokyo (Paul Woodford Vocal)
Play Pig (Wighnomy & Robag Wruhme Moosmutzel With Melody)
Mmm…Skyscraper, I Love You (Razormaid! Mix)
Crocodile
Beautiful Burnout
Cowgirl (Futureshock Mix)
Rez
Born Slippy .NUXX (Atomic Hooligan Mix)
Play Pig (Pig & Dan Re-mix 3)

Underworld Vol. 2 – The 50 Pound Note Mix
(Original upload date 10 September 2007)

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Dinosaur Adventure 3D
Kittens (Live in Japan ’99)
Two Months Off
Juanita/Kiteless
Push Upstairs (Darren Price Remix)
Jumbo (Original Mix | Rob Rives & Francois K. Main Dish)
Moaner (Live in Holland ’99)
Doot Doot (Extended Mix) by Freur

“All these things…in me…”

I meant to put these together in November of last year when I returned from London, having snapped up the five limited edition 12″ singles of remixed tracks from the RiverRun series of downloads, but I’m glad I waited.

The first mix contains six songs most people haven’t heard: Peggy Sussed, Vanilla Monkey, JAL To Tokyo, and Play Pig, all of which come from those singles, along with Crocodile and Beautiful Burnout which appear on the forthcoming album Oblivion With Bells.

The second mix contains two live versions that were made available by the band in 2003, and a little piece of history: Doot Doot. At the dawn of the 80’s Karl Hyde and Rick Smith came out of Wales with a 5-piece nu-romantic group that had an unpronounceable squiggle for a name, later revealed as Freur. I remember seeing the video for Doot Doot on MTV, and I even ended up with a copy of the album. I don’t think anyone at the time could have predicted they’d go on to become critically and commercially loved pioneers in electronic/dance music, soundtracks, film/video, and print media.

“Your thin paper wings…dangling…dangling…”

Queen – The 50 Pound Note Mix
(Original upload date 6 May 2007)

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One Vision (Extended Vision)
Stone Cold Crazy (Nine Inch Nails Mix)
The Invisible Man
Under Pressure (Rah Mix) by Queen & David Bowie
Another One Bites The Dust (Cedric Gervais & Second Sun Vocal Mix)
New York At Last by Smash
Love Kills (Sunshine People Club Remix) by Freddie Mercury
Burn Your Radio (Queen vs. John Lydon vs. Public Enemy) by Instamatic
Fat Bottomed Girls (Roman Pushkin Main Mix)
A Kind Of Magic
Flash (Extended Mix) by Queen + Vanguard
I Was Born To Love You (Max Tundra Remix)

“Fat bottomed girls you make the rockin’ world go ’round”

Three of these tracks have previously appeared in the Kiss The Future series, making Queen the artist who has appeared the most. I was really surprised once I realized that because I’d have assumed it was New Order, The Knife, Depeche Mode, or anyone else!

New York At Last is essentially a new Queen track in the same way that Free As A Bird was a new Beatles track. It started as one of Freddie’s demos, and by carefully sampling and layering guitar, bass, and drum parts from other Queen songs then merging the results with an electro synth line reminiscent of Radio Ga Ga (it is, in fact, the synth line from the remix of Love Kills which follows it) Smash made it made something good enough that it could have been a single.

New Order Vol. 3 – The 50 Pound Note Mix
(Original upload date 21 April 2006)

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Run 2 (Extended Version)
Vanishing Point (Instrumental Making Out Mix)
Subculture (Sarm West Mix)
Best & Marsh
Soundtrack (Chronovisor Edit)
Round & Round (12″ Version)
MTO (Minus Mix)
True Faith (Morel’s Pink Noise Mix)
Paradise (Robert Racic Mix)
Guilt Is A Useless Emotion (DJ Dan Club Mix)
The Happy One (50 Pound Note Mix)

Depeche Mode – The 50 Pound Note Violated Mix
(Original upload date 18 January 2007)

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Kalied (7″ Version)
Policy Of Truth (Capitol Mix)
Enjoy The Silence (Ewan Pearson Extended)
Happiest Girl (Razormaid Mix)
Dangerous (Hazchemix)
World In My Eyes (Razormaid Mix | Cicada Mix)
Sea Of Sin (Razormaid Mix)
Clean (Colder Version)
Personal Jesus (Holier Than Thou Approach | Pump Mix)
Halo (Goldfrapp Remix)

I have long wanted to do a mix of the old & new singles/B-sides/remixes from Depeche Mode’s Violator album, and along with the Erasure and Nitzer Ebb mixes found in these pages I consider this the third part of a Mute Records trilogy.

Erasure 1986-1995 – The 50 Pound Note Mix
(Original upload date 17 January 2007)

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A Little Respect (12″ Vocal)
Love To Hate You (Paul Dakeyne Mix)
Oh L’Amour (PWL Funky Sisters Say ‘Ohh La La’)
Supernature (William Orbit Mix)
Rage (Vitamitavegemix) by Erasure & Lena Lovich
Star (Trafalmadore Mix)
Drama! (Act 2)
Fingers & Thumbs
Always (Microbots Trance Dance Mix)
Chorus (Aggressive Trance Mix)
Blue Savannah (Razormaid Mix)
You Surround Me (Remix)

Cabaret Voltaire 1983-1991 – The 50 Pound Note Mix
(Original upload date 9 January 2007)

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Here To Go (Extended Mix)
Sensoria (Razormaid MIx)
Don’t Argue (Dance Mix)
Yashar (Remix)
Kino (12″ Mix)
What Is Real (Virtual Reality Mix)
Don’t Walk Away
Keep On (Razormaid Mix)
Hypnotize (Razormaid Mix)
No Name, No Slogan by Acid Horse (Ministry vs. Cabaret Voltaire)
Sex, Money, Freaks (Kevorkian Mix)
Easy Life (Jive Turkey MIx)

Dead Or Alive – The 50 Pound Note Rip It Up 2006 Mix
(Original upload date 29 December 2006)

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Your Sweetness (Is Your Weakness)
Brand New Lover (Dust Monkey’s Love Bubble Club Mix)
Hooked On Love (Razormaid Mix)
Love Toy (Instrumental)
In Too Deep
Come Home With Me Baby (Deadhouse Dub)
Lover Come Back To Me (Extended Remix)
My Heart Goes Bang (American Wipeout Mix)
Unhappy Birthday (12″ Remix)
You Spin Me Round (Razormaid Mix)
Something In My House (US Wipeout Mix Part 2)
Sex Drive (Direct Hit Mix) by Glam featuring Pete Burns
Turn Around & Count To 10 (Razormaid Mix)
I’ll Save You All My Kisses (The Sonia Mezumbda Memorial Mix)

Reworking Dead Or Alive’s Rip It Up album is something I’ve always wanted to do. While the material is unimpeachable the (at that time) state of the art digital edits were poorly timed and now sound very dated. In 2001 I started putting material together for a redo, and while this version isn’t as polished as what I’d envisioned, I’m still pretty happy with it.

When I had a regular DJ gig I was always frustrated with DOA’s remixes because they’re noisy and messy, making them difficult to mix in/out of. Even some of the edits crafted by Razormaid suffered from timing problems, so while I’ve listed the particular version of each track I used, nearly every one of them is actually my own edit.

Apart from the eight singles on the original album I’ve added six others: Turn Around & Count To 10 appeared on Nude in 1988 and was a #1 single in Japan for 17 consecutive weeks (The band has scored 17 #1 singles in Japan). Come Home With Me Baby was also on Nude, as was Love Toy, but Love Toy only appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese CD (and has never been available elsewhere). Your Sweetness (Is Your Weakness) and Unhappy Birthday first appeared on the Japanese-only album Fan The Flame (Part 1) in 1990, and while Unhappy Birthday subsequently appeared on Nukleopatra in 1995, Your Sweetness (Is Your Weakness) has never been available in the US. Sex Drive was written and produced by the Italian dance trio Glam in 1993, and was also included on Nukleopatra.

I call it a 3-way tie, but my favorite DOA tracks are Hooked On Love, My Heart Goes Bang, and Lover Come Back To Me.

When I first traveled to England at the age of 17 (summer of 1988) I had one of those yellow waterproof Walkmans with an auto-reverse feature, and I listened to Rip It Up on a loop for the entire trip. It was somewhat fitting then, when, on this last trip, my friend Laurance gave me the ornate, blue metallic paisley-covered shirt he wore to see the Youthquake tour in 1985.

Pete Burns has never been a man of tact. Read some of his quotes on the band’s Wikipedia page for a good laugh.

PS: I had DOA’s DVD Evolution: The Hits running in the background while working on this mix, and it’s obvious Pete was a fashion whore for Vivienne Westwood in the early days. In a TV appearance from 1980 he’s wearing one of her necklaces made from chicken bones, and in an appearance from 1982 he’s decked out head to toe in clothes from her Buffalo collection: oversized top hat, rags tied into his dreadlocks, a cardigan with buttons made from tin can lids – think Haysi Fantayzee, The Belle Stars, and “dressin’ like a hobo.”

The Knife – The 50 Pound Note Mix
(Original upload date 23 December 2006)

DOWNLOAD (78.9 MB, 192kbps, 57:23)

Heartbeats (Rex The Dog Remix)
Marble House (Rex The Dog Remix)
We Share Our Mothers’ Health (Trentemøller Remix)
What Else Is There? (Trentemøller Remix) by Röyksopp featuring Karin Dreijer
Like A Pen (Extended Club Mix)
You Take My Breath Away (Mylo Mix)
You Take My Breath Away (MHC Remix)
Silent Shout (Williams Acidic Circuits Remix)
Pass This On (Dahlback And Dahlback Mix)

New Order Vol. 2 – The 50 Pound Note Mix
(Original upload date 10 October 2006)

DOWNLOAD (76.8 MB, 192kbps, 55:50)

Fine Time (Prime Cuts Mix)
Waiting For The Sirens’ Call (Planet Funk Remix)
Hurt
Temptation (Peter Black Remix)
Regret (Tocadisco Remix)
Blue Monday
Crystal (Digweed & Muir Bedrock Mix)
True Faith (King Roc Remix)
Here To Stay (Full Length Vocal)