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The Beat Bash – 10 April 2014

Posted on by Jeb


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The Beat Bash – 10 April 2014

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So Hard by Pet Shop Boys
Cold by LaTour
Love Baby by Fortran 5
Cold World by Jamie Principle
Lack Of Love by Charles B
Set Your Body Free by Inner City
Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic
Hey Music Lover by S’Express
Rosebud by Fred
It’s Alright by Pet Shop Boys

“The children say…”

And here we have Chicago by way of London, Belgium, Detroit, and, well, Chicago.

Before William “Bud” LaTour scored a hit with People Are Still Having Sex he was a frequent contributor to the Dr. Demento Show. Bud worked as a studio musician on a number of house records, and also got exposure to the Wax Trax gang through the Chicago studio circuit.

Jamie Principle first released It’s A Cold World in conjunction with Frankie Knuckles on Trax Records. The re-recorded version here was produced by Steve “Silk” Hurley and released in 1989. I’ve always preferred this slower, smoother version.

Fred is otherwise known as Fred Giannelli, a Boston-born musician who became part of Psychic TV in the late ’80s, and collaborated with Genesis P. Orridge during their acid house phase. Rosebud was on his first solo EP, relased on Wax Trax in 1991.

Apart from Pet Shop Boys, none of these artists have appeared in previous episodes.

It’s Alright by Pet Shop Boys

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It’s Alright (The DJ International Mixes) by Pet Shop Boys

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It’s Alright (Tyree Mix)
It’s Alright (Sterling Void Mix)

“’cause the music plays forever…”

I’m recovering from a nasty cold, and just as I started getting better my husband got sick. I honestly haven’t had time to record this week’s show, but I’ll have it online by Saturday evening.

What I did have time to do, however, was see Pet Shop Boys in Oakland on Tuesday night. They’re bringing the Electric tour to Coachella over the next two weekends, so here in the Bay Area we were treated to our second PSB gig in only 6 months.

Before they came on stage, a short mix set of tracks by the late Frankie Knuckles was played over the PA. Chris Lowe in particular loves his house music, as evidenced by the Boys’ 1989 cover of It’s Alright by Sterling Void, a.k.a. Chicago artist Duane Pelt. They even got Pelt to bring it full circle and remix their cover for a limited 12″ single titled The DJ International Mixes (paired with a remix by fellow Chicago house producer Tyree Cooper). It’s Alright is one of my favorite Pet Shop Boys singles, so I was knocked over when it showed up during the encore, mashed up with Vocal from the most recent album. I’ll be following suit, using it as the closing track in this week’s mix.

The restoration job here was done by Bruce Bartlett, who remastered all the New Order singles for the Recycle project. Please to enjoy!

The Beat Bash – 6 February 2014

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The Beat Bash – 6 February 2014

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Losing My Mind by Pet Shop Boys
Blow The House Down by The Wee Papa Girl Rappers
Rains On Me by Heavenly Bodies
Don’t Crash by Front 242
Hearts & Minds by Nitzer Ebb
Don’t Walk Away by Cabaret Voltaire
Burnin’ Up by Jamie Dee
Running by Information Society
Get Your Body! by Adamski featuring Nina Hagen
Situation ’90 by Yazoo

“I’d like to see you in the sewers of my mind…”

Now this is more like it.

Sometimes a mix just comes together with a real groove, and feels effortless. I love this one. The transition from Losing My Mind to Blow The House Down was always a personal favorite.

Heavenly Bodies was recorded by Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. Jamie Dee’s Burnin’ Up is built around a sample from Magic’s Wand by Whodini, a 1982 hip hop track that was co-written and produced by Thomas Dolby.

The Beat Bash – 2 January 2014

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The Beat Bash – 2 January 2014

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Lover Come Back To Me by Dead Or Alive
I Need A Man by Eurythmics
Kooler Than Jesus by My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult
Fine Time by New Order
Get Real by Paul Rutherford
Behind The Wheel by Depeche Mode
Helter Skelter by Meat Beat Manifesto
Jetlag by Severed Heads
Freemason by Boxcar
Left To My Own Devices by Pet Shop Boys

“I was faced with a choice at a difficult age…”

And so we begin. The story of The Beat Bash runs parallel to my coming out, in that I had some inkling, but didn’t fully understand things until I got to college, where some slightly older and more experienced friends gave me guidance. My eyes (and ears) were opened to a whole new world, and I embraced it fully.

In this first episode I tried to sum up what The Beat Bash was really like. Dead Or Alive was (original co-host) Brian Parker’s favorite band, so they appeared in almost every show. New Order and Depeche Mode were the biggest names in alternative dance music at college radio, and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult was representative of the typical Wax Trax! Records sound. The Beat Bash is where I first heard Severed Heads and Meat Beat Manifesto, who became hugely influential on my own music (I have a Severed Heads tattoo on my left forearm). There’s also my beloved Pet Shop Boys, who were wildly successful everywhere in the world but the US, where they were beginning to move back underground.

Past>Forward Vol. 2 – The 50 Pound Note Retro Mix – The Metro, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

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Past>Forward Vol. 2 – The 50 Pound Note Retro Mix – The Metro, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
(Original upload date 18 April 2007)

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Walking Away (SMD Mix) by Information Society
Bizarre Love Triangle (12″ Version) by New Order
True Faith (Morning Sun Remix) by New Order
The Different Story (Razormaid! Mix) by Peter Schilling
Losing My Mind (Disco Mix) by Pet Shop Boys
Das Omen (Razormaid! Mix) by Mysterious Art
Strangelove (Pain Mix) by Depeche Mode
Join In The Chant (Burn!) by Nitzer Ebb
Theme From S-Express (US 12″ Mix) by S-Express
Crucified (The Nuzak Remix) by Army Of Lovers
I Sit On Acid (Mixin’ Up The Acid) by Lords Of Acid
Welcome To Paradise/Headhunter (Razormaid! Mix) by Front 242

“DROP THAT GHETTOBLASTER!”

Located at 156 W Main Street in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, The Metro was in operation from roughly 1990 to 1993. It came third a succession of gay-owned bars (Cafe LMNOP, Great Moments) that appealed to a mixed crowd, and played alternative dance music. During regular hours it was a lesbian bar but on Friday and Saturday nights from 1:30 to 4:00 a.m. DJs Chad and Joe would spin bands like Depeche Mode and New Order for an 18-and-up crowd that was a mixture of gay/straight/male/female/white/black/young/old. During the fall of 1990 it became the first gay club I’d ever set foot in, a full year before I turned 21.

I was already DJing a dance music show on the college radio station, which then approached the bar to have me do an industrial music night on Thursdays. I got to know Joe and Chad and within a year I was regularly filling in for them on Saturdays, too.

This is the first of two mixes that capture the sound of those nights. By the tail-end of 1991 James Brown Is Dead came along and suddenly techno wiped away melodic, song-based dance music. I started DJing at The Bar in May of 1992 so my Metro days came to an end.

I hope someone from the old crowd finds this mix; I’ve not seen any of them in many years.

As a side note I’d like to add that I had a lot of trouble recording this mix. I had to do it five or six times due to repeated technical difficulties, and it made me laugh because these are the songs I learned how to DJ with, and it was like my skills had reverted to that beginner level all over again. I should have left a great big train wreck right in the middle of it for old time’s sake.

Past>Forward Vol. 1 – The 50 Pound Note Retro Mix

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Past>Forward Vol. 1 – The 50 Pound Note Retro Mix
(Original upload date 28 March 2007)

DOWNLOAD (81.8 MB, 192kbps, 59:29)

Big Strong Man (Wild Boys Remix) by Tanz Waffen
Cccan’t You See (Razormaid! Mix) by Vicious Pink
Always On My Mind (Razormaid! Mix) by Pet Shop Boys
You Think You’re A Man (12″ Mix) by Divine
Homosapein II (Icon Mix) by Pete Shelley
Give (Dance Mix) by Missing Persons
Knocking On Your Door (Mark Saunders Remix) by Erasure
Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat
Rush Hour (7th Heaven Remix) by Jane Wiedlin
Keep In Touch by Re-Flex

“Well keep in touch, won’t you?”

After spending several years doing a dance music show on my college radio station, in 1995 I switched over to an early Saturday morning shift and began Past>Forward which explored the history of electronic music. Beginning with Edgard Varese who is considered the godfather, I sought not to explore just dance but all forms of electronic music. Did you know that in 1967 The Monkees were the first band to use a commercial synthesizer on a pop record? With the success of Wendy Carlos, Gershon Kingley’s successful single Popcorn and Kraftwerk’s Autobahn the listening public gradually became aware of synthesizers but the watershed moment (for me) would have to be Donna Summer’s I Feel Love, created by Giorgio Moroder and Pete Bellotte in 1977. The melding of affordable synthesizers and sequencers with disco rhythms would give birth to an explosion of danceable pop bands all through the ’80s, which brings me to this new series.

Based on our mutual adoration of Vicious Pink’s Cccan’t You See, my friend Denny asked me to put together a retro mix for him to listen to at the gym. I thought this would be a good excuse to bring back the Past>Forward name and create a mix series that pays tribute to the music that made me want to be a DJ in the first place. While there may at times be some crossover between this series and Kiss The Future the bulk of Past>Forward will be songs released between 1980-1990. I’ve also considered doing an all-disco mix (pre-1980), and I’ll have a chance to focus on specific labels like San Francisco’s Megatone Records which raised the bar for high energy dance music.

Most of you will be familiar with all the artists in this first mix. Re-Flex is the same band that did The Politics Of Dancing, and their only LP (sharing the same title, released in 1983) was a strong early influence on me. Keep In Touch was the last song on the album. The one artist here that almost no one knows is Tanz Waffen. The name is German and translates as “dance weapon” but the band was actually a male/female duo from Austin, Texas. Big Strong Man was their only official single (although other songs were released by the Razormaid! remix service).

I liberally borrowed “past forward/passed forward” as a name and concept from a Die Krupps singles compilation released in 1991.

Kiss The Future Vol. 2

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Kiss The Future Vol. 2
(Original upload date 25 August 2006)

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Girl And The Sea (Cut Copy Remix) by The Presets
Ladyflash (Simian Mobile Disco Mix) by The Go! Team
You Got Me (Babydaddy Remix) by VHS Or Beta
No Scrub Girls (TLC vs. Prodigy vs. Rex The Dog) by Soundhog
Work On You by MSTRKRFT
Only This Moment (Alan Braxe & Fred Falke Remix) by Röyksopp
Minimal (M Factor Mix) by Pet Shop Boys
Limewire by Etienne de Crecy
Two Months Off (King Unique Sunspots Vocal Mix) by Underworld
Out Of Control by Chemical Brothers with Bernard Sumner

Scissor Sisters Vol. 1 – The 50 Pound Note Mix

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Scissor Sisters Vol. 1 – The 50 Pound Note Mix
(Original upload date 26 July 2006)

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I Don’t Feel Like Dancing by Scissor Sisters
Good Boys (Scissor Sisters Gyad Byas Myax Ya Mix Extended) by Blondie
I Believe In You by Kylie
The Skins by Scissor Sisters
Flamboyant (Scissor Sisters Silhouettes And Shadows Mix) by Pet Shop Boys
Hot In Herre by Tiga featuring Jake Shears
More Lemonade (Scissor Sisters Sticky Tits Mix) by Bucci Bag
Filthy/Gorgeous (Extended Mix) by Scissor Sisters
Superstar (Scissor Sisters Remix) by The Ones
Money (Scissor Sisters vs. T Rock Remix) by The Flying Lizards
Electrobix (12″ Mix) by Scissor Sisters

Pet Shop Boys – The 50 Pound Note Mix

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Pet Shop Boys – The 50 Pound Note Mix
(Original upload date 19 June 2006)

DOWNLOAD (79.5 MB, 192kbps, 57:49)

I’m With Stupid
Discoteca (PSB Extended Version)
Flamboyant (Tomcraft Extended Mix)
The Boy Who Couldn’t Keep His Clothes On (The Farway Dub)
I Want To Wake Up (1993 Remix)
It’s Alright (The Sterling Void Mix)
I Get Excited (Razormaid! Mix)
Fugitive (Richard X Extended Mix)
My Head Is Spinning
Psychological (Alter Ego Remix)
West End Girls (DJ Hell Mix)
Minimal (Tiga’s M-I-N-I-M-A-L Mix)
Sodom (Trentemøller Remix)

Future Retro

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Show #32 – Future Retro
(Original upload date 31 January 2006)

DOWNLOAD (44.8 MB, 128kbps, 1:37:41)

The Walk (Infusion 12″ Mix) by The Cure
Shout (Solaris Original Mix) by David Bowie
Need You Tonight (Static Revenger Mix) by INXS
Homosapien II (Icon Mix) by Pete Shelley
Situation (Future Funk Squad’s Downstairs @ Fabric Mix) by Yazoo
Shake The Disease (Tiga Mix) by Depeche Mode
Whip It (HMS & M Mix) by Devo
Decadance (2 Risk E Remix 12″) by Duran Duran
(Keep Feeling) Fascination (Groove Collision TMC Mix) by The Human League
Bizarre Love Triangle (The Crystal Method Extended Mix) by New Order
I Get Excited (Razormaid! Mix) by Pet Shop Boys
Obsession (Club Mix) by Xymox
Cccan’t You See (French Extended Mix) by Vicious Pink
Don Quichotte by Magazine 60

Inspired by the 2006 Rhino Records compilation of the same name, here’s a collection of new remixes of ’80s classics, alongside some overlooked gems.