Archive for the ‘Lo Fidelity Allstars’ Category

Blisters On My Blog

Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

My life has been pretty video game music centric this week, so I felt a change of pace was in order. I hope I don’t alienate my new readers, but I figure the sooner you get used to the random nature of this blog the better. Tonight it’s mid-90s techno. Next week I might post the soundtrack to an obscure 80s horror flick followed by remixes of the “Fletch” theme.

Okay, one of those is totally going to happen.

Lo-Fidelity Allstars
Blisters On My Brain (Many Tentacles Pimping On My Keys)
Blisters On My Brain (JDE’s Millennium Vocal Mix)
Blisters On My Brain (Sisters On My Mind Mix)
Blisters On My Brain (Tim Rex Lunar Dust Vocal)
Blisters On My Brain (Tim Rex Lunar Dust Dub)
I’ve been doing this for seven years and I can’t believe this is the first time I’ve ever posted a Lo-Fidelity Allstars track proper. I was totally obsessed with their first album for a good chunk of 1998, with “Battleflag” pretty much being my jam for most of my sophomore year of college. I haven’t really followed them since though, are their later albums worth picking up? Their first record is amazing, but it’s also really a product of its time, I wonder if they kept with the times that much. Electronic music is fucking fickle.

“Blisters On My Brain” is probably my second favorite track from their first album, with “Battleflag” being my obvious first choice. I just love the lyrics to this tune, especially the hook. “Never mind your fingers I got blisters on my brain” is such a great line, and while I don’t know what the hell a “disco machine gun” is, I totally want one.

All these remixes are great. “Many Tentacles…” is a excellent instrumental version, while the “JDE” mix really cranks up the samples and transforms the track in a classic big beat tune straight out of a Fatboy Slim mix. The “Sisters” mix is just fantastic and cranks the track into a rock tune thanks to a wall of guitar effects, while both Tim Rex mixes take the tune into trance territory to great effect. I love how five mixes can rework one song into so many different places and genres.

Traci Lords
Control (Overlords House Mix)
Control (San Frandisco Mix)
Control (DJ FX Frandisco Dub)
I’ve talked about Traci Lords a few times here, and I always say the same thing; she is tragically underrated as a singer/musician. Her sole album, 10,000 Fires, is really good! I mean it! Listen to it! It’s out of print physically, but you can get it on iTunes and Amazon now, so there’s no excuse.

These are great remixes of a great song. I wanted to also post the definitive Traci Lords track, “Fallen Angel (Perfecto Mix)” but my copy has a skip in it. I’m going to try and re-record it sometime soon. It’s one of the greatest techno tracks of all time, I need a good copy of it on my computer. I mean, if not then that $20 I paid for the Virtuosity soundtrack was just a complete waste.

 

Although now that I think about it “Love Missile” sounds gross…

Tuesday, December 7th, 2010

Saw Girl Talk this weekend. Amazing show…odd people in attendance. Expect a full review later this week.

Right now its pushing 1AM, I have a ton of work to do and I’m tired, so I’m keeping this brief. I think the quality of tunes will make up for it though!

Erasure
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) (Manhattan Clique Extended Mix)
Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) (Dan Frampton Radio Mix)

I bought many (many) Erasure 12” singles in Portland. Almost all at 2nd Avenue Records, which was very odd considering most of the stuff in that place was hip hop or punk rock. I was thinking of posting them all at once (making the most FABULOUS blog post ever) but I thought I’d draw it out a bit. I don’t know if my blog can take that music fabulousness at once and survive.

Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Love Missile F1-11 (Extended Version)
Love Missile F1-11 (Dance Version)
Love Missile F1-11 (Single Version)

Oh hell yeah. I have been looking for this single for years! This totally made the trip to Oregon worth it. Well, that and seeing my family for Thanksgiving.  I love this song so much. It’s just everything great, new, weird, wonderful and stupid as hell about the 80s all in one song, which really makes sense when you find out that Giorgio Moroder produced the track. I own both Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s 80s albums, but nothing on any of them comes close to their remixes, especially the dance mix of this track and the various remixes of “Sex Bomb Boogie” and “Success!” I’ll have to dig those singles out and re-record them. I recorded those back when my turntable was only doing shit in mono. I’m sure they sound great in stereo. For those of you who may not know,  Tony James of the Sigue is now working with Mick Jones of The Clash/B.A.D. under the name Carbon/Silicon and they make wonderfully bizarre pop music together. Check them out.

Pigeonhead
Battleflag (Lo Fidelity Allstars Remix)
Battleflag (Biopod Mix)

I did not know that Pigeonhead was a band until about 48 hours ago when I looked them up. I always assumed it was a dude who worked with the Lo-Fidelity Allstars. I’m even more surprised that Pigeonhead was an American band! From Seattle! During the 90s grunge boom! The wonders never cease. The Low-Fiedelity Allstars remix was eventually remixed even more and put on that band’s debut album. This version is not the same as that one, it especially diverges near the end. The Biopod Mix actually kind of…sucks, but is worth listening to so you can see how to NOT remix a track with an amazing vocal performance. Rule number 1, don’t bury the lead under stupid distortion effects.