Figures right after I write about how I don’t get sick as much as I used to that I go and get sick for the second time in two months. Might as well post and write about a shitload of Madonna remixes, cuz that’s my thing after all.

But before you check out this bountiful supply of mid-tier Madonna tracks, take some time and head over to my other site, Mostly-Retro. Witness it’s continuing transformation into a far-too-personal blog. Here’s a story about Japanese medicine (and poop). Here’s another story about arcades, and also about how I identify with Tokyo’s slow decay away from the glory days of the 80s. Y’know, hot topical stuff that I’m sure will get me them hits.

Madonna
Hollywood (Jacques Lu Cont’s Thin White Duke mix)
Hollywood (The Micronauts remix)
Hollywood (Oakenfold Full remix)
Hollywood (Deepsky’s Home Sweet Home Vocal remix)
Hollywood (Calderone & Quayle Glam mix)
Love Profusion (The Passengerz Club Profusion)
Love Profusion (Blow-Up Mix)
Love Profusion (Ralphi Rosario House Vocal Extended)
Love Profusion (Ralphi Rosario Big Room Dub)
Love Profusion (The Passengerz Dub Profusion)
Love Profusion (Craig J.’s Good Vibe Mix)
Love Profusion (Ralphi Rosario Big Room Vox Extended)
Lots of stuff here, I want to empty the Madonna out of my backlog by the end of the month.

There are some reposts here, kind of. I put up most of those “Hollywood” remixes a few years back, but those were taken from various 12″ singles. Tonight’s MP3s are rips from CD singles – so they sound much better. Re-download them even if you snagged the earlier ones. They’re all mostly good remixes also, solid takes on a good track.

The “Love Profusion” tracks are good as well, I really enjoy the Ralphi Rosario remixes, they give the track an 80s vibe that really suits it well.

Hey, did I mention I saw Duran Duran and Nile Rodgers this week? That was fucking amazing. Here, I have the gif to prove it.

Y’all have a nice weekend.

I wrote a thing about how George A. Romero nearly destroyed my life and how much I like his movies.

Also, Madonna.

Madonna
Music (HQ2 club mix)
Music (Calderone Anthem mix)
Music (Deep Dish Dot Com remix)
Music (Groove Armada club mix)
Music (The Young Collective club mix)
Music (HQ2 radio mix)
Music (Calderone radio edit)
Music (Deep Dish Dot Com radio edit)
Music (Groove Armada 12″ mix)
Die Another Day (Calderone & Quayle Afterlife Mix)
Die Another Day (Calderone & Quayle Afterlife Dub)
I really have to work on purging my Madonna backlog from my queue. These tracks included, there are 45 Madonna remixes in my LostTurntable iTunes playlist, and many of them have been there for a while. I’m really sorry! It’s not like I don’t love Madonna (OMG I love Madonna) I just keep getting distracted by obscure Japanese electronic jazz-funk records. I’m sure you can all identify.

Or not, I don’t know.

I don’t have terribly much to say about these remixes. Most are good, a few aren’t. I posted a couple of the “Music” remixes a few years back, but those were taken from a 12″ single, these are from a proper CD single, so they sound much better.

As I don’t have a lot to say about these tracks, I thought I’d use this space to pontificate about the State Of Lost Turntable, as I do every so often.

If you’re and long-term/regular visitor to this blog you’ve probably noticed my recent change in focus regarding what I’m posting lately. Of my past 10 posts, only two have consisted of Western pop music. The rest were either focused on Japanese dance tracks, or incredibly obscure and strange Japanese electronic music from the 70s and 80s.

This actually has less to do with my taste in music and more to do the fact that it’s kind of hard to find decent 12″ singles from 80s acts here in Japan. I’ve been looking! Really, I have! But whenever I do find some seemingly-obscure 12″ remix by an 80s or 90s act y’all might’ve heard of, it turns out the tracks are either in print or I already posted them years ago. Hence the propensity for me to post and share tracks from out-there Japanese artists, they’re easier for me to find, and still routinely out-of-print (especially in the States and Europe, where most of you are).

I can tell my move to increase focus on Japanese artists isn’t exactly popular. Not because of negative comments (I’m not getting those – thanks for that) but from the complete lack of comments (and hits) that those posts generate.

I get that obscure Japanese jazz-funk might not be your thing. Same for a collection of 70s synthesizer covers of Beatles tracks, but if you only come here to download songs by artists you know or have heard of, and don’t give the Japanese stuff a fair shake, I beg you to reconsider. A lot of the Japanese stuff I’m posting is some of my favorite music as of late, it’s just so original and different when compared to, well, everything else I’ve ever listened to.

So, the next time you come here and you see some weird, obscure Japanese album or an all-synthesizer covers album and are about to close the tab or go somewhere else, why don’t you try giving the music a chance first? You got nothing to lose, shit’s free after all.

Finally, and I know this sounds kind of lame, but if you do like some of the more obtuse and bizarre shit I share, let me know by leaving a comment. It’s nice to know that I’m sharing this for at least a few appreciative people. And if I share something you really like, you could also share it yourself via Facebook, Twitter, or whatever. Again, I know that sounds a little bit like a desperate cry for more readers, but I just want the music I share to find an appreciative audience.

More people need to hear these crazy Beatles covers. Same goes for these synthesized remakes of sci-fi movie themes. And have you heard the soundtrack to the Golgo 13 movie? It’s great! What about this weird Japanese ambient record I found on cassette tape? Or this amazing album of avant-garde electronic funk/jazz? 

Look, I like Madonna as much as the next gay man, but expand your horizons people!

Okay, sorry for the rambling, enjoy the Madonna-rama.

I’m not dead! I feel happy!

Eh, well, I feel okay I guess. Got some allergy shit going on and my leg is acting weird.

I’ve been gone for over a fucking month! Shit! That sucks. I really sorry about that. The first couple of weeks in August were busy as hell, and then the rest of the month (as well as the first week in September) were spent on vacation back in the states. Usually I find some time during my trips to set aside for writing, but that just couldn’t happen this time around. This vacation I saw family and friends in five states, took my boyfriend to about half a dozen or more museums, celebrated about seven birthdays (including my own) and got drunk on bloody marys more times than I’d like to admit. Sometimes life gets in the way of me posting random crap on the internet, and for that I apologize.

I’m still actually disgustingly busy now that I’m back in Tokyo and I have to make up for a month off, but I really wanted to get something up here. Luckily, I happened to find a holy grail single when I was in the states, so I hope this will help make up for my time away.

Madonna
Holiday (Extended Remix)
Over And Over (Extended Remix)
In 1987 Madonna released You Can Dance, one of the very first remix albums. It’s comprised of extended remixes from her first three albums, as well as one new track, “Spotlight.” The mixes themselves are mixed into a continuous mix (save for when you have to flip the record). That makes for a fun, party-friendly, listening experience, but if you just want to listen to one of the tracks it’s kind of a bummer, as they get cut off suddenly mid-transition. A (very rare) promo CD did get out that features unmixed versions, but those versions were single edits, not the extended versions found on the album proper.

Only two of the remixes from You Can Dance have been released unmixed, and these are it. They were only made available on a promo release that featured them alongside the unmixed dub versions as well (which you can now find on the You Can Dance CD and digital version).

I’ve been looking for this promo for FUCKING AGES. I saw one in Tokyo once, but it was for well over $100. And while I love me some Madonna, I got my limits. Thankfully, I was at home last month (home being Jerry’s Records in Pittsburgh, PA) and he somehow had a copy buried in his Madonna section for a steal of a price. I even told him that it was priced too low, but he gave me the deal anyways, because Jerry is dope. Thank Jerry for his dope kindness by swinging by his store the next time you’re in the greater Pittsburgh area, and enjoy these insanely hard to find mixes.

I really, really hope to have something more substantial in the coming days and weeks. Things will definitely calm down come next month at the latest. Thanks to all for your continued patience.

I’m in America! Oregon to be exact. So if you see a giant man in a Run DMC shirt buying records in Portland this Tuesday, say yo.

Sorry if tonight’s post is poorly written and/or stupid. I’m suffering from severe jet lag and slightly drunk.

Madonna
Ray Of Light (Sasha Strip Down Mix)
Ray Of Light (Sasha Twilo Mix)
Ray Of Light (Sasha Ultra Violet Mix)
Ray Of Light (Victor Calderone Club Mix)
Ray Of Light (Victor Calderone Drum Mix)
Ray Of Light (William Orbit Liquid Mix)
Ray Of Light (William Orbit Ultra Violet Mix)
This is easily one of my favorite Madonna singles, probably in my top ten between “Music” and “Don’t Tell Me.” It’s a wonderful song, and one of the most perfect dance tracks ever constructed.

That being said, let’s talk about the lyrics for a minute.

Zephyr in the sky at night I wonder
Do my tears of mourning sink beneath the sun
She’s got herself a universe gone quickly
For the call of thunder threatens everyone

“Zephyr in the sky” is one of the strangest opening lines to any pop song outside of the 1960s psychedelic rock boom. The literal definition of “zephyr” in case you were wondering, is “a light wind.” So the opening line of the song is her pretty much saying “Hey wind, I have a question.” Or maybe she’s talking to a train. Who knows. I’m not even going to begin to attempt parsing the other lines of the chorus. I’m sure they’re not nonsense, but they definitely come off as such. I bet it’s deep and probably has to do with whatever religion Madonna was into that week, so I don’t want to knock them too much.

But that chorus.

“And I feel like I just got home.”

What does that even mean? Okay. Seriously. Let me think about how I feel when I walk in the door. These are the thoughts going through my head.

• Ugh, I gotta take this tie off.
• Oh my god I have to pee so bad.
• I wonder if I got any mail.
• When’s my boyfriend coming over?
• Oh well, might as well play some Rock Band for a bit. Or maybe Pac-Man.
• I want pizza.

Maybe the line means something like “I’m relieved” or “I’m at peace?” “I’m in a safe space?” Or maybe it’s like, she just got home after a long journey. But wouldn’t “I feel like I’m finally home” work better for that feeling?

It doesn’t really matter, of course. This is a rave track, and a late-90s one at that. And if “Blue” taught us anything, it’s that 90s dance music didn’t have to have any deep meaning behind it. In fact, it was probably better when it didn’t.

And these remixes are dope. I hope you all enjoy them and if I don’t get another post up before, I wish you all a merry Christmas.