Erasure - Love is a Loser (808's Across the Nation mix)

In 1985, Vince Clarke, late of his recent musical experiments with Alison Moyet (Yazoo), and Feargal Sharkey (the one off single which was The Assembly), decided to put an ad in the London musical newspaper Melody Maker, looking for a vocalist. Out of many hopefuls to respond was Andy Bell, a very hopeful singer from Basildon. After some successful auditions, Erasure was born, becoming one of the most enduring acts to survive outside of the 80's.

Their debut album Wonderland in 1985 was my first introduction to this duo, and I've been a lifelong fan ever since. A number of remixes were spawned from the tracks on this album, but one that got sadly overlooked was "Love is a Loser", a really bouncy and joyful synthesizer track with a really addictive beat. I always thought this track deserved the extended 12" treatment, but it never happened.

So, I decided to fix this oversight once and for all. I used only the original track from the album, but managed to align instrumental sections to eventually isolate the vocals, synth lines, percussion, and even the bassline, then reassemble them together. I used flanging on the vocal and snare bits, and even added my own sampled percussion from a Roland TR-707 and 727 mahcine, two machines Vince used on the Wonderland album. The opening has almost a loping reggae feel to it, but this is most definitely a classic 80's extended remix track. Get ready for a trip back to 1985.

Running time for this mix is 6 minutes and 5 seconds.

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Stevie Wonder - Master Blaster (Jammin') (808's extended mix)

I was a big fan of Stevie Wonder back in the day, and at age 11 I remember getting the album Hotter than July for Christmas. It had lots of wonderful tracks on it, but I always liked the message behind the reggae-influenced "Master Blaster".

I managed to get ahold of the 7" single of this, and noticed there was a VERY interesting dub mix on the other side, using all kinds of wild effects and interesting sounds. So in doing this mix, I decided I would blend this version with the original album cut.

In doing this mix, I didn't use a lot of straight edits ... for much of it the two mixes play on top of each other, but I will do crossfades at key points, including one part towards the end where Stevie sings acapella for about 2 bars.

The entire mix clocks in at 7 minutes and 19 seconds.

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Joe Jackson - Steppin' Out (808's Neon Mix)

This has always been a favorite 80's track of mine, since it's USA release in 1982. Joe Jackson was a singer from England, who tried his had at a variety of styles ranging between rock, new wave, jazz, swing, and classical music. This was of course his most remembered song, a delightful piece of new wave synthpop from the album "Night and Day" which went to #6 in the USA.

During my stint as a DJ at St. Ivan's Infirmary, a virtual 80's dance club in Second Life, I collected a number of rare and underground 80's mixes, and one that always stuck in my mind was a mix of this song by a Brazilian remixer known as DJ Tony. It ended up being a staple of all my DJ gigs, and recently, when I felt inspired to do a re-edit of his mix, I decided to try to cook up my own mix of this song.

For this mix, I used only the album version of the song, but with some serious modifications. For example, I was able to take the beat and bass loop from the beginning of the song, and use it against the rest of the song to create an acapella mix, and about three mixes of the song, one of them an instrumental, without the beats present. Using these elements, and a bit of airplane flanging, I think I have managed to capture the authentic 80's extended remix feel that I think this song deserves.

This mix clocks in at 6 minutes and 11 seconds.

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