How’s everyone doing?

After three weeks of excessive drinking (not non-stop, just on my days off) I’ve decided I need to stop drowning my sorrows and anxieties in booze and try to find a more healthy coping mechanism. For now, that’s buying obscure game music on vinyl. It’s working out for my liver okay, but my wallet is a little pissed.

Additionally, stupid music has been a lifesaver during this time of strife. So to the person who shared the YouTube links of the Hi-NRG versions of “Bette Davis Eyes” in the comments section of my last post, I say thank you. Don’t suppose you have Hi-NRG versions of “Rainbow Connection?”

Moving on, I updated the massive Tokyo record store guide! Now it’s even bigger. A new store opened up in Shinjuku that I thought was worth incorporating because it’s damn good. If you find yourself in Tokyo anytime soon you must make your way to the Shinjuku HMV, the place is a palace of vinyl.

Now let’s dance.

Carmen Electra
Fantasia Erotica (Indecent Proposal Mix) (Radio Edit)
Fantasia Erotica (Erotic Groove Mix)
Fantasia Erotica (Sex Drive Dub)
Fantasia Erotica (Xtra Sex Dub)
Fantasia Erotica (He Dances Instead)
Fantasia Erotica (Double Deep House Mix)
Let me just get this out of the way right now, for those who are wondering why the hell I’m sharing Carmen Electra remixes; this song was produced by Prince.

Does it make sense now?

Oh but don’t worry, your initial thought upon seeing Carmen Electra’s name was correct, this song is quite awful. Even Prince had his fair share of misses. I don’t think these tracks are going to get re-issued via some Prince Vault special edition re-release campaign anytime soon.

Of course, I hope they do. No matter how bad the song is, I hope that eventually everything that Prince ever put his hand on is made available, in-print and easy to purchase either digitally or physically. Because that’s how music should be.

But I hope that they get to re-releasing The Family album before they dig this bad boy up again. This song has the line, “Oh, speak American? No speak Carmanese!”

What the fuck does that even mean? Oi.

Donna Summer
I Feel Love (Mega Mix)
I Feel Love (Edit Mix)
I’m kind of bending my “never share legally available music” rule tonight, because while you can get at least one of these mixes on a legally available CD, it sure as hell isn’t easy.

For those wondering, these are two of the “I Feel Love” mixes that were remixed by the legendary Patrick Cowley, the man who brought us Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” and singled-handedly invented Hi-NRG disco.

You can get the “Mega Mix” on at least two compilations. One is the two-disc edition of Donna Summer’s greatest hits album The Journey, and other on a hard-to-find remix compilation series that I have forgotten the name of. Regardless, you can’t buy it on Amazon or iTunes digitally, and you sure as hell ain’t going to find it at your local record store (if you still have one of those, I keep forgetting that most people live in cities that aren’t Tokyo) so I don’t feel too bad for sharing it. Also, I’m fairly certain that the version on The Journey is a straight-up vinyl rip. Mine sounds better (in my opinion).

As for the “Edit Mix,” shit, I don’t know where the hell you can find that. I’m sure it’s been on CD at some point, but that point was probably a long time ago, so I feel safe in sharing it now. I actually like that version a bit more than the full “Mega Mix.” Fifteen minutes of sequencers is a bit much, y’know?

Depeche Mode
I Feel Loved (Danny Tenaglia’s Labor of Love Radio Edit)
I just really wanted to share a remix of “I Feel Love” and “I Feel Loved” in the same post and then have an internal debate about the grammatical differences between the two. These are the kind of things that English teachers think about. It’s a sickness, really.

And for those keeping count at home, it has been approximately 13 months since the last time I posted Depeche Mode.