Archive for the ‘remixes’ Category

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Madonna’s Hot Seven Inch Record

Friday, November 2nd, 2018

Madonna
Burning Up (Japanese 7″ Mix)
Physical Attraction (Japanese 7″ Mix)
This is really why I moved to Japan. Okay, not really, but I’d be lying if “finding Japanese only remixes” wasn’t in my top ten.

Of all Madonna’s early singles, “Burning Up” has the most convoluted release history. The song was originally released in the states as a 12″ single in March of 1983. That version is a 12″ remix, about six minutes long. The album came out a few month later, and featured a 4:48 version that is similar to the 12″ remix. But at some point, there was a switch, and the album version was replaced with a different version that’s 3:45 long and sounds drastically different, with different synthesizer and guitar parts.

But in addition to those versions, there’s also at least one 7″ single version. While America never got a 7″ single for “Burning Up,” other countries did. It’s nearly the same length as the replacement album version, and is actually an edited version of the 12″ single version.

I don’t know how many different 7″ edits/versions there are. According to some, the Japanese single is different than the European one. I have no idea one way or the other, as the Japanese version is the only one I have. I would hazard to say that if there are any differences between the Japanese version and 7″ versions found elsewhere, they’re probably minor.

The story of “Physical Attraction” is a lot more simple. It served as a B-side to the original US 12″ single, but that version was just the album version with no changes. This version is a 7″ version that was exclusive to 7″ singles. Neither of these versions have been made widely available since, save for a massive 40 CD singles collection that came out in Japan a few years back. So finding this single for less than ten bucks was a pretty good score for me.

I almost went an entire calendar year without posting a Madonna remix! Thank god we were able to avoid that.

Posted in Madonna, remixes | 1 Comment »

Shohjo-Tai’s Happy Fun Synthpop Fun

Sunday, October 21st, 2018

My neck is killing me and my brain is broken but if I don’t write about stupid Japanese synthpop that literally no one on earth cares about, WHO WILL?

Shohjo-Tai
Forever 2001
Flamingo Island
Space Magic
I’ve been working here in Japan for nearly five years now, time flies. But in that time, I’ve rarely had any of my students recommend any music worth a damn to me. Very early on, someone suggested Capsule, and I got way into them. But most of the time, in the rare cases that students do want to talk about Japanese music, they only bother recommending acts like Mr. Children or Yellow Monkey, who are both fine bands I guess, but just sound like bland rock to me: Japanese Coldplays.

But I was teaching an adorable housewife a few weeks ago who knew that I dig older music, and she was all excited to recommend to me this band. She explained to me that her friends who like “techno-pop” all like this group, even though they never registered any major hits. She assumed I would like them too. And she was very much correct.

Shohjo-Tai somehow released eight albums/EPs in just five years. The general consensus seems to be that their best release is From S, a mini-album that features an assist from Haruomi Hosono and Koshi Miharu. Of course, that one’s a bit harder to find so I haven’t picked it up yet. I did find some good stuff though, especially the tracks from this single, which originally came out in 1985. Both “Forever 2001” and “Flamingo Island” are hella fun, bouncy tracks that probably weren’t hits only for the fact that the Japanese singles market was absolutely flooded with tracks like them at the time. The instrumentation is fantastic on both of those tracks, synthesizer saturation all the way, but with some depth as well. “Forever 2001” features some pretty solid guitar, and “Flamingo Island” is booming with dope bass.

This single was produced by Akihiro Shigematsu, a person whose name I had not heard before. According to Discogs, he didn’t do much, but that might just be because his page lacks his full production discography. Hell, he’s not even credited on Discogs with this release. One fairly notable artist he did work with was Junko Ohashi, another lesser-known idol of the 80s whose work has vaulted back into the spotlight thanks to that strange “City Pop” resurgence.

The final track of the three, “Space Magic” is a bit different than the first two. It’s a dance track first and foremost, with the vocals almost secondary. When I first heard it, I was reminded of Koshi Miharu, so I wasn’t surprised to find that she did, in fact, write and arrange the track. It’s a fantastic tune, and could be mistaken for a YMO b-side thanks to its excellent production and electronic arrangements. The girls of Shohjo-Tai are actually barely present on it, just showing up for a smidge of vocals halfway through and then again at the end. It almost sounds like an instrumental remix of another track, but I can’t find one with more vocals anywhere, so I guess this is it.

If you dig this music and want more Shohjo-Tai, check out YouTube, people have uploaded a lot of their best stuff there. And if I can ever get my hand on From S, you bet your butt I’ll be sharing it here. Gimme that Hosono.

Posted in B-sides, remixes, Shojo Tai | 3 Comments »

Forgotten Synthpop by a Has-Been

Friday, October 5th, 2018

Seona Dancing
More To Lose (Extended Version)
You’re On My Side

I can’t believe I found this in a used records bin for 300 yen. This thing goes for close to a $100 online these days.

That’s of course, not because of the song’s quality (which I’ll get to in a bit) but because of the new romantic looking dude on the right. That would be Rick Gervais. As I’m sure many of you know, Seona Dancing was Gervais’ early attempt at stardom, but they only managed to release less than a handful of failed singles before fading into obscurity (save for the Philippines, where they are legendary one-hit-wonders). Do a YouTube search of the group and you’ll uncover countless uploads of their few songs, as well as bits from various talk shows where the hosts drudge out clips from the group in an effort to embarrass Gervais, who has no doubt long gotten sick of the joke by now.

I wonder if any of the talk show hosts who play these clips realize that the few songs that Seona Dancing put out were, actually not that bad? Sure, they’re very dated and not entirely original, but that goes for a lot of fantastic music from that era. You’re going to tell me that “More To Lose” is somehow an embarrassing relic while songs of similar quality by B-tier acts like General Public, Spandau Ballet, or any other act featured on a John Hughes soundtrack are any better?

“More To Lose” should’ve been a hit. It has a fantastic feel of melancholy, the opening piano melody is a hell of a hook, and Gervais’ early-80s Bowie impersonation is spot on. For me, it’s evocative of “Don’t You Forget About Me,” only slightly less epic and far less annoying. (The only people who are more sick of that song than me are Simple Minds.)

“You’re On My Side” isn’t as good, and a far more obvious Bowie knock-off. It’s way too minimal, with zero hooks. It’s just some drum beats, two keys on a keyboard, and Gervais’ howling, which is where the faults in his voice become a bit more glaring. Still though, is it any worse than any other mid-level synthpop song of the time? Not really.

There are dozens of rips of these tracks online, but most are: A) On YouTube and B) sound overly compressed or scratchy. I’m sure I’m not the first person to provide high-quality rips of these online, but I must be the first person in a while, as I can’t find any right now. I doubt that it’s going to get re-released anytime soon. Someone I was talking to on Twitter suggested that Gervais’ is crazy for keeping this out-of-print. But I highly doubt that he owns these tracks. London Records (now part of Universal I believe) probably has better things to do than pull this one out of the cellar, even if they could find the masters, which I doubt. And maybe with Gervais’ recent move to “I’m going to offend you AAAAAH” style of comedy, maybe they just don’t want to deal with any baggage a re-release might entail.

Shame, it’s one of the best things that edgelord asshole ever did.

 

Update: Okay I know yinz mean well by pointing out the other blog that has these songs. And I’m not mad at anyone who did that. But that other blog posts often posts (not so good) rips of legally available music. Additionally, that other blog routinely PLAGIARIZES written content without proper attribution. I refuse to link to them, or name. I hope it burns to the ground.

Posted in remixes, Seona Dancing | 1 Comment »

Ride on That Freeway Of Love

Thursday, August 30th, 2018

Aretha Franklin
Freeway Of Love (Rock Mix)
Freeway Of Love (Radio Mix)
Freeway Of Love (Extended Remix)
Like most anyone who grew up in the 80s, my first exposure to Aretha Franklin was in The Blues Brothers, quickly followed by this massive hit single from 1985. In the days after her death, I saw a few “best of” Aretha lists on various publications, but not many people mentioned this song. I assume they think it hasn’t aged well? I’m no Aretha expert, I own a single album of hers and a greatest hits. But this has always been one of my favorite songs of the era, it’s the type of fun, bouncy track that could’ve only been produced in the 80s.

It’s 80s synth funk-pop is the best. When you toss out that phrase most people (of course) think of Prince and Michael, but they were far from the only people in the 80s who successfully fused 70s disco and funk with 80s dance and synthpop. There’s Aretha here, and let’s not forget Tina Turner, who scored the biggest hits of her career when she melded her classic sound with uber-sleek 80s production. And what about The Pointer Sisters? Break Out, their synthesizer-fueled magnum opus, is one of the greatest dance albums of all-time, I stand by that.

This sound died quick once the 90s hit, and I feel like it only recently made even the slightest comeback. “Uptown Funk” tapped into it, but it was kind of a false start. Not much came in the wake of that, save for Bruno trying to replicate it with his solo work (which is alright I guess). I blame Trump. Yes. For real. We were on our way to a full-on dance-pop revolution and then that orange piece of rotten smegma got elected and pop music got horribly depressed (and hey…ditto). I guess most people don’t want to boogie when the world is on fire.

Well, I do! I need to boogie! I get that everything is shit and it feels like nothing is ever going to be good ever again. And in times like this, more emotional, downbeat music is of course going to be more popular. And protest or angry music is going to have a place too (I wish it had more of a place, to be honest). But let’s not forget to have fun, people! Pop music is so dour right now, hip-hop is emo as fuck, indie rock is tweeing itself to death, and mainstream rock is still stuck in a 2000s post-grunge slump that I think it’ll never get out of.

Fun music still has a place in today’s decidedly unfun world. You can fight the power, campaign for social justice, be aware of how shitty the world is and listen to fun music now and then. The 80s wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops y’know, but we still kicked it to dope jams like this.

Crank this tune. Listen to Aretha sing about men in tight pants. Take in that dope sax solo by Clarence Clemens, as well as the vocal harmonies of Sylvester and Jeanie Tracy, and remember that it’s okay to have fun once and a while, even if the music of today doesn’t always let you.

Posted in Aretha Franklin, remixes | 3 Comments »

Fuck Up Nazis and Listen to David Bowie

Sunday, July 22nd, 2018

I haven’t been all that political on my blog as of late. To be honest, it’s just been too damn draining, but I felt the need to speak up against this, only because I don’t feel like enough people are.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, James Gunn was fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 because a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women and a Nazi started a smear campaign against him.

In a world where everything seems to be falling to shit all around us, I know it might sound trite to have this be a hill I’m willing to die on, but fuck this. This is emblematic of everything wrong with American discourse. Bad faith actors, “fake news,” public shaming, hypocrisy, and the ever-growing shamelessness of the right-wing, who slam a man for jokes he apologized for all while praising a President who admitted on video to sexually assaulting women.

I can’t do much to fight against this, all I can do is share this petition asking for Disney to give the man his job back, and not to kowtow to literal Nazis and literal rapists. Please sign and share it. Let them know.

Also, if you see horribly-written, poorly researched articles about the topic (like this one or this one), maybe comment or email the writers. Let them know how you feel about them being taken on as useful idiots for a right-wing smear job designed only to silence anyone who speaks out too loudly against Trump. Remind them that any article about Mike Cernovich that doesn’t feature the line “a man who has admitted to sexual assault and condones rape” is fucking up. Remind them that Jack Posobiec is a LITERAL NAZI who spreads Nazi propaganda and codes his messages with Nazi symbolism.

And don’t forget that it’s always okay to fuck up a Nazi.

Okay, now David Bowie.

Tin Machine
You Belong In Rock ‘N’ Roll (Extended Mix)
Amlapura (Indonesian Version)
Shakin’ All Over (Live)
I’m really interested in hearing the upcoming Loving The Alien David Bowie box set, which covers the artist’s much-maligned mid-80s output. I’ve always though that a little bit of that kickback was unwarranted. Let’s Dance has a few bad songs on it, but it’s a good album. Ditto for Tonight. I will fight anyone who tells me that “Blue Jean” is not a wonderful 80s pop song.

Of course, there was a lot of less-than-stellar stuff there too, the most obvious being Never Let Me Down, the only album in Bowie’s discography that he seemingly disowned completely. That’s why I’m so interested in buying the box set, as it will include an entirely remixed and redone version of the album that will hopefully strip out some of that horrible 80s production and polish some of those songs into the gems that I know they can be.

It really can’t be understated just how bad that album is though. If it was an album by a band, it would’ve caused them to break up. It led David Bowie to do the opposite and form a band, Tin Machine, just so he could escape from being David Bowie for a while. Yeah, Tin Machine wasn’t perfect either, they also had seemingly had a miss for every hit, but they were at least different, and they really gave Bowie a good place for him to experiment and re-invent himself for the 90s, where he reached another creative high-point, in my opinion.

I occasionally read that the Tin Machine albums served as a precursor to grunge, and while I love them both dearly, I certainly can’t see that. Tin Machine’s sound may be stripped down, but it’s certainly not raw. These albums still sound like slick 80s rock albums, just slick 80s rock albums that are a little less bombastic than what else was going on at the time.

“You Belong In Rock ‘N’ Roll” was the lead single off of the group’s second album, and it failed to light up the charts anywhere. It’s a great tune, if a bit odd. It feels like a cross between “Low” era and “Let’s Dance” Bowie; brooding and off-kilter, but still pop. Not an easy balance to make, but Bowie (of course) pulled it off just fine. Can’t believe it bombed.

The original version of “Amlapura” is an album cut, this version, recorded in Indonesian, was exclusively a B-side and has never been re-released. Same for this live cover of “Shakin’ All Over,” which features a short-but-dope-as-fuck solo by Reeves Gabrels. Wonder if these will get remastered and repackaged for the next Bowie box set? Those things have been really random with the rarities, so it’s hard to tell.

Enjoy the Bowie. And pleas don’t forget to sign that petition.

And if you feel the need to comment in praise of Cernovich, don’t fucking bother, I screen comments for a reason.

Posted in B-sides, David Bowie, remixes | 2 Comments »

Mega Game Mega Mixes

Friday, July 13th, 2018

Shinji Hosoe
Running UP! (Arrange Version)
Running UP! (Megamix Version)
These are remixes of the theme to Dirtfox. I have never played Dirtfox. I don’t know what Dirtfox is. (It’s apparently an arcade overhead racer.) I only know that the soundtrack I found at Book-Off was just 300 yen so I thought “hey why not?”

I’m glad I picked it up, it’s a fun, bouncy soundtrack with a good, upbeat theme. Although the theme is pretty much all the soundtrack is. It opens with the “Arrange Version” of the main theme, continues with the two versions of the theme actually hear while playing the game, and then concludes with the “Megamix Version.” Aside from that, there are just three other tracks, none of which top a minute in length.

Shinji Hosoe went on to do the music for Ridge Racer by the way, so I guess racing game music is in his blood.

 

Darrell Harvey, Rex Baca & Kip Martin
Dungeon Master (Mega Mix)
Chaos Strikes Back (Mega Mix)
I stumbled upon this one in Osaka and it immediately unleashed a flood of memories. I actually never played the original Dungeon Master, my family didn’t have a computer when it came out. However, my friend had it for his Apple IIGS, and I would sit and watch him play it for hours on end. I don’t think either of us were ever able to really wrap our heads around the game, we were both probably eight or nine at the time, but we just loved the look of it, and it would always inspire me to draw my own dungeon monsters, demons and heroes. Now that I’m a grown-ass adult with a (slightly) better understanding of dungeon-crawling RPGs, I really should try it again sometime.

I was surprised to see that the game had a soundtrack release (especially in Japan) as I didn’t recall the version we played having any music at all. Turns out that the game was released for the FM Towns computer in Japan, which came with a CD_ROM drive. And the version of Dungeon Master that was released for the FM Towns took full advantage of said drive, packing a Redbook audio soundtrack on the game disc.

Since you can play Redbook audio on any standard CD player, it’s kind of funny that they decided to released the soundtrack for the game and it’s Chaos Strikes Back expansion pack on a regular CD. I guess that might be why they included the above “Mega Mixes,” which were not featured in the games themselves?

Finding out that a few Western games made it over to Japan on CD for the FM Towns makes me want to scour the used racks for those games to see which others might have obscure soundtracks tucked away on Redbook audio. Wonder if there are any hidden gems there!

Posted in Game Music, remixes | No Comments »

Towa Tei Or Towa Die

Friday, May 25th, 2018

Towa Tei has a new album coming out this summer, in a sense. It’s actually a collaborative effort between him, fellow Metafive member Yoshinori Sunahara and someone who goes by the name Bakarhythm (“baka” is Japanese for “stupid” FYI). The project is using the name of an old Towa pseudonym, Sweet Robots Against The Machine.

I have high hopes for this one, despite the fact that the original SRATM album a rather forgettable affair. I’m much more of a fan of Towa’s current sound than his older stuff, and anything he’s done with anyone from his Metafive crew has just been fabulous. His albums Sunny, Lucky, Cute and Emo are all top-notch dance-pop bangers so here’s hope the streak continues with what he has coming up next.

In the meantime, let’s check out some of the stuff he put out in the past, which I coincidentally bought last week.

Towa Tei
Let Me Know (TT Remix)
Let Me Know (Mighty Bop Remix)
Let Me Know (Mighty Bop Remix Instrumental)
This is a track from Towa’s 1999 album, Last Century Modern, featuring Chara on vocals. This is very 90s Towa, with a heavy emphasis on that ever-so-hard-to-define “lounge” sound that he typified at the time. I really dig this stuff, but only in really small doses. It’s very much a singles genre for me. A whole album of it tires rather quickly. It’s just not uptempo enough for me. I need some more beats. I guess that’s why I prefer his newer stuff, it finds a happy middle-ground between his low-key lounge act stuff and the hyperactive techno that’s still relatively popular here in Japan. These remixes came from a 10″ single that, in addition to being green, has the cutest damn cover ever.

Deee-Lite
Pussycat Meow (The Meow Mix)
Pussycat Meow (Murk Boys Miami Mix)
Pussycat Meow (The Pussy Power Remix)
Pussycat Meow (Infinity Extended Mix)
Pussycat Meow (Murk Bonus Dub)
I’ve listened to this track about 10 times now and have gone from kinda liking it to kinda outright hating it. It’s such a non-song. Man, Deee-lite is fucking tragic. I’m including this for all your remix completists out there and for no other reason at all. I can see why I disliked a lot of early Towa Tei now, he had to get stuff like this out of his system.

Also, if you like this song, HEY THAT’S COOL MAYBE DON’T LEAVE A COMMENT ABOUT HOW I’M STUPID FOR NOT LIKING IT.

Posted in Deee-Lite, remixes, Towa Tei | 2 Comments »

Electronic Music For Dead Feet

Monday, May 21st, 2018

Entertained a guest the past few days, which was very fun. It’s always great to show someone around Tokyo for the first time. It’s also incredibly exhausting. Holy shit I’m tired. Hence the short random post tonight. And hence the first post without proper art of any kind since December of last year. Damn. I was on a roll too.

Nah, fuck it. Here’s a picture of dancing mascots.

Okay, the streak continues.

Ram Jam World
Bluesy Baby
Bluesy Baby (Instrumental)
Bluesy Baby (Ed Rush & Optical Remix)
Ram Jam World is a Japanese drum and bass act. That was a surprise to me, because in my four years here I have yet to find anyone who remotely enjoys DnB. On the few occasions that I visit dance music record stores, I rarely come across the genre. Most dance music here is house or techno. I had no idea the act was Japanese when I bought this single. I snagged it solely because it featured a remix by Ed Rush and Optical, my favorite drum and bass act of all-time.

Now that I am aware of Ram Jam World’s existence, I hope that I can find some of their CDs proper. I really want to track down Uta To Oto, since it features Tomohiko Gondo from Metafive. This track doesn’t feature any luminaries of the Japanese electronic music scene (as far as I know) but it does feature Speech from Arrested Development. Speech is big in Japan. I have no idea why. I just know that he toured here as recently as 2016, and has several albums that either are exclusive to Japan or came to Japan first. So the next time someone drops on you that Mr. Big and Scatman John are big in Japan, you can throw that fact on them too.

Of course, no one in Japan is bigger than me in a literal sense because I’m a giant.

Gershon Kingsley
Popcorn (2000 Instrumental)
Popcorn is, of course, not a rare track. It’s probably still one of the most popular and recognizable electronic songs of all time. But this version is, as it was a vinyl only bonus track to the Grand Royale compilation At Home With The Groovebox. That album contains another version of this song that features Gershon Kingsley describing how he created the song the first time around. This version strips away that explanation and leaves us with a rather interesting modern take on the song, one that I can assume was created primarily with digital synths and computers of the era. It doesn’t have the classic analog sound of the original version, but it’s still great. And the wordless vocalizing that fades in near the end of the track is a nice touch that serves the song well.

Posted in Gershon Kinglsey, Ram Jam World, remixes | No Comments »

Hudson Game Music – Arranged Versions

Thursday, May 10th, 2018

Hudson Game Music
Bomberman (Arranged Version)
Nuts & Milk (Arranged Version)
Binaryland (Arranged Version)
Championship Lode Runner (Arranged Version)
Star Soldier (Arranged Version)
Hudson Game Music was the third release by G.M.O. Records, a subsidiary of Afla Records that was set up by Yellow Magic Orchestra for releases of game music soundtracks. Nearly all of the label’s early releases were compilations for specific developers, most likely because games at the time didn’t have enough music on their own to fill a complete album.

Most of the early releases by G.M.O. featured only one or two “arranged” (or remixed) versions and instead focused on pure audio rips from the games themselves. The Hudson Game Music release is a bit different as its entire B-side is dedicated to arranged versions, with nearly every game from the A-side getting a proper arranged version on the B-side. I don’t know if this was because Hudson didn’t have enough games of note to fill an album, or because G.M.O. wanted to showcase arranged versions, it’s hard to say.

Some of these titles are pretty damn obscure. Of course, I know Bomberman and Lode Runner (albeit not in its “Championship” variation), and I have a vague recollection of Star Soldier, but I know Nuts and Milk by name only, and have never even heard of Binaryland. A quick YouTube search of both confirms that I’ve never played either.

These arrangements were all done by Yoshihiro Kunimoto, who did a ton of arranging and remixing for a lot of early game music releases by GMO Records. He also worked with a few legends of Japanese music, including Jun Togawa and Denki Groove. He certainly knows what he’s doing here, all of these arranged versions are pretty damn great. The standout for me is the manic take on the Bomberman theme, a sample-heavy remake that also features a rad guitar solo. The Nuts and Milk track is a bit more sedate, but builds off the game’s simple melody in some fun ways, while the Binaryland theme is oddly re-imagined as a string quartet piece (with some synth overdubs) that makes it sound a bit like a lullaby. Championship Lode Runner is the sparsest of the bunch: a dreamy re-working that’s bookended with music box-esque takes on the tune, while Star Soldier is probably the most standard of the group, but that’s not a bad thing; it’s a fully synthed out remix that would fit alongside most 16-bit shooters, and with so much synth-bass. Love the synth-bass. Need more synth-bass.

According to the Video Game Music Database, Hudson Game Music was released on vinyl and cassette on July 25, 1986, with the CD version coming out exactly one month later. That would make it the fifth GMO title to be released, between Konami Game Music Music Vol. 1 and Capcom Game Music. It’s exceedingly rare to find these days, I’ve never even seen a CD copy. This rip is from the vinyl edition. Unlike other early G.M.O. releases, the Hudson Game Music vinyl edition was a picture disc. And yes, that certainly does look cool, it doesn’t do wonders for audio quality. Thankfully, I think my vinyl restoration software did a pretty good job of cleaning it up. Hope you dig it.

Posted in Game Music, remixes | 5 Comments »

Tell Chico that his beat his dope – The Mexican

Tuesday, April 10th, 2018

Jellybean
The Mexican (Dance Mix)
The Mexican (A Capella)
The Mexican (Funhouse Mix)
Hip Hop Bean Bop (Bonus Beats)
The Mexican (Short Version)

It’s funny how you stumble upon, discover, or even re-discover songs sometimes. I’m absolutely certain I had heard this song before last month, but it took a fluke discovery of a disco cover for me to fall in love with it finally.

 

“The Mexican” is a classic for a lot of people, but just as many people don’t know anything about it, so I thought I’d touch upon its history here. The song was first written and recorded by the band Babe Ruth, a British prog/blues band who released a few albums of moderate note in the mid-70s. “The Mexican” was a minor hit, but not a breakthrough smash by any stretch of the imagination.

 

But it somehow quickly found a second life, not as a rock tune, but as a club track. That’s how I re-discovered it, hearing it on a goofy disco record by a Canadian disco act called Bombers. Their version is good, it’s a pretty hard song to fuck up to be honest, but the second I heard it I realized that I had heard a different version of it at some point in my life, a version that was better.

Thanks to never deleting any song from my iTunes ever, I quickly was able to figure out where I first heard the track; on The Prodigy’s Dirtchamber Sessions mix CD. That’s two dance acts (albeit of very different types) to cover/sample “The Mexican,” but little did I know that just scraped the surface.

“The Mexican” sounds instantly familiar to almost anyone because of samples, not only because of who has sampled it, but because of what it samples as well. The track is built off of a riff from a Morricone tune, the theme music to “A Few Dollars More.” Like the theme to “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” that music has been used so often as homage and/or parody that it’s just ingrained in the public psyche. Anyone listening to “The Mexican” for the first time will get to the part that uses that famous Morricone riff and instantly recognize it.

In turn, “The Mexican” has been sampled and remixed by seemingly countless other artists. Parts of it were sampled in “Planet Rock” by “Afrika Bambaataa, and it was even sampled by Sugar Ray in their shitclassic “Fly.” And if you fancy yourself a fan of The Jungle Brothers, Grandmaster Melle Mel, GZA, R. Kelly, Kool Moe Dee or Doug E. Fresh, then you’ve probably heard a sample of “The Mexican.”

 

A lot of people would probably credit the version I’m sharing tonight for popularizing “The Mexican” in hip-hop and dance culture, but as the version by Bombers shows, that’s clearly not the case. This song was floating around in the club and dance scenes almost immediately after its original release. It was a disco staple, despite not being a disco song at all.

Still, without question, a big factor in long-lasting appeal of “The Mexican” is because of this version by Jellybean, aka John “Jellybean Benitez, the superstar producer and remixer of the 80s who worked with Madonna, Sheena Easton, Fleetwood Mac and about a billion others. This version was a number one single on the dance charts and is the one that most often pops up on mixes like The Dirtchamber Sessions. It was a prog/blues song that happened to have a good beat before Jellybean got his hand on it, he turned it into a dance track, one that breakdancers still pop and lock to the beat of to this very day.

However, even though it’s been an incredible influence on the dance scene, (not to mention that it just kicks all kinds of ass) Jellybean’s version of “The Mexican” is not an easy track to come across legally these days. You can find it on some compilation albums, although they usually only feature the short version. The full-length mix was included on Jellybeans’ 1984 album Wotupski!?!, but even that’s a little hard to find these days, and the CD version apparently has all kinds of problems. How holes like this in the digital marketplace of 2018 continue to happen are beyond me, but as long as they exist I guess this blog will have a place.

And someone tell Muse to cover this, that would be amazing.

Posted in Jellybean, remixes | 1 Comment »

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