J. Geils Band - Freeze Frame (808's Double Exposure Mix

This is my first blog post in years.  This was also my first extended remix that I have done in about the same amount of time.  I recently have had some of my extended mega mixes played on the local college radio station WUTK 90.3 here in Knoxville, TN, on a Friday night show called the 80's rock off.  One such megamix included my own custom version of this classic song from the J. Geils Band.

This track never got an officially sanctioned remix, so I decided to have a go at it.  For this one, I used the original track and an instrumental, bounced out the vocals, and added some swirl effects and some editing tricks to make it sound like a classic 80's extended mix.

Now that I have found a legit way to host these remixes (through legitmix.com) you will likely see more posts from me than you have in the past.

This mix clocks in at 6 minutes and three seconds.

Listen to this mix on legitmix.com

Blowing off the dust ...

Those of you who may notice this page hasn't been updated in awhile ... with good reason. My mixes had to be taken offline due to copyright reasons. But that is going to change ... I have found a new legal way of hosting my mixes, http://www.legitmix.com ... I will be putting up all my old material real soon, along with some new tracks. Stay tuned!

a-ha - "The Living Daylights" (808's Licence to Kill Mix)

"The Living Daylights" was a revolutionary installment in the James Bond movie franchise. This 1987 movie was most notable, in that it was the first to star actor Timothy Dalton in the role of James Bond. And of course, the score by composer John Barry is, as always, memorable.

Continuing on from 1983's "A View to a Kill", in which Barry enlisted British new wave band Duran Duran to do the title song, here it is the Norway pop group a-ha who contributes the movie's title theme. While this song is memorable, and powerful in it's own right, a-ha themselves recorded what I thought was a far superior version of this song for their 1988 album "Stay On These Roads". This version always seemed to me to be more focussed, and powerful.

So, for this extended mix, while I did use some parts from the original song, and also the 12" extended mix based from that mix, I relied most heavily on the (in my view) far superior album cut. At various parts throughout the song, and especially during the overly bombastic beginning and ending of this mix, I made use of John Barry's orchestral version of this song as well. The result is an extended mix which I think truly captures the James Bond spirit.

This mix clocks in at a leisurely 9 minutes and 40 seconds

Listen to this track on legitmix.com

Eurythmics - Here Comes the Rain Again (808's Open Wind Mix)

Eurythmics have always been one of my favorite 80's synthesizer acts. When they first burst onto the Top 40 here in the USA with their song "Sweet Dreams" in 1983, they caused a sensation. The music was fresh, new, and of course the vocals of Annie Lennox are always distinctive.

The 1984 album Touch was of course their followup to the extremely successful Sweet Dreams album, and saw the Eurythmics continue their electronic style. A standout track from this album was the leadoff single "Here Comes The Rain Again". Although it did chart at #4 here in the USA, inexplicably no extended 12" mix was ever commissioned for this song. There was a remix album released in the UK, but this song was left off.

I have listened to many unofficial mixes of this song, including the Disconet mix, and another mix by fellow amateur remixer DJ Tony, and I decided it was time for me to add my version. This is made only using the album version, and again I sourced an acapella mix (which you can hear most clearly at the end of the mix), and used that to re-source an instrumental mix, and even a mix only using vocals and percussion, which you hear for about 5 seconds at the start of the second verse. Flange airplane effects are used at parts throughout the song, and on the vocals at the end of the mix as well. This song now has a true extended remix, worthy of it's 80's status as a classic track.

Running time for this track is 8 minutes 44 seconds

Listen to this track on legitmix.com

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.

Listen to this mix on legitmix.com

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.

Listen to this mix at legitmix.com

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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