Rhotation (39) Into BPM

Hello, it's Rhotation 39 this week and Into BPM today is all about remixes. Some people dislike remixes, i'm not one of them, in fact i like the concept of remixes. Obviously it does not always turn out well, but then often it enhances the power of a track, giving it more life. The albums here are all remixes of one artist and these showcase were remixers can go with material. With Blondie they had a hard time as the tracks had all been big hits, some previously remixed in early eighties dance fashion, coming up with a real innovative view turned out diffecult for most, and dare i say i got the impression the label that hired them wasnt that interested in spending money either....How different the attitude towards Sarah McLachlan's remixed album, here a successful crossover to trancemusic was achieved, triggered by the success of a previous single with trance band Delerium and specially thru the remix by trancemaster Tiesto. It clearly inspired the other remixers to give it their best shot aswell....Laibach have a name when it comes to reworking old material, which gave the remixers all the room to take out all registers and make this remix collection well worth the time...Reinventing James Brown can be dangerous and when this album came to market a month after his death it got largely ignored by the press and public. A pity because there's really good remix work at hand and i think had he lived single success would have been on the cards. It was not to be, despite the outstanding work that left the hardest working man in showbusiness right in the middle.....

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Blondie - Beautiful - The Remix Album (95 ^ 135mb)

In the early 1970s, Chris Stein moved to New York City and, inspired by the New York Dolls, aimed to join a similar band. He joined The Stilettos in 1973 as their guitarist and formed a romantic relationship with the band's vocalist, Deborah Harry. A former waitress and Playboy Bunny. Stein and Harry formed a new band with drummer Billy O'Connor and bassist Fred Smith. By 1975, Smith and O'Connor had left, and the line-up was Stein and Harry plus drummer Clem Burke, keyboard player Jimmy Destri and bass player Gary Valentine. Originally billed as Angel and the Snake the band renamed themselves Blondie in late 1975. They became regulars at New York's Club 51, Max's Kansas City and CBGB. Blondie got their first record deal with Private Stock Records in the mid-'70s and released their debut album Blondie in 1976

In August 77, Chrysalis Records bought their contract from Private Stock and in October reissued Blondie and released the second album, Plastic Letters. Blondie expanded to a sextet in November with the addition of bassist Nigel Harrison (born in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, England), as Infante switched to guitar. Plastic Letters was promoted extensively throughout Europe and Asia by Chrysalis Records. The album's first single, "Denis", was a cover version of Randy and the Rainbows' 1963 hit. It reached number two on the British singles charts, while both the album and its second single, "(I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence, Dear", reached the British top ten. That chart success, along with a successful 1978 UK tour, made Blondie one of the first American new wave bands to achieve mainstream success in the United Kingdom.

Parallel Lines, Blondie's third album, was produced by Mike Chapman. Its first two singles were "Picture This" and "Hanging on the Telephone". "Heart of Glass" was their first U.S. hit. It was a reworking of a rock song that the group had performed since its formation, but updated with strong elements of disco music. Clem Burke later said the revamped version was inspired partly by Kraftwerk and partly by the Bee Gee's "Stayin' Alive". Heart of Glass became a popular worldwide success. Selling more than one million copies and garnering major airplay, the single reached number one in many countries including the U.S., where, for the most part, Blondie had previously been considered an "underground" band. The song was accompanied by a music video that showcased Deborah Harry's hard-edged and playfully sexual persona, and she began to attain a celebrity status that set her apart from the other band members, who were largely ignored by the media, and thereby laid the groundwork for Blondie's demise......

Their fourth album, Eat to the Beat, was well received by critics as a suitable follow-up to Parallel Lines, but in the U.S. it failed to achieve the same level of success. In the UK, the single "Atomic" reached number one, "Dreaming" number two, and "Union City Blue" was another top 20 hit, while in the U.S. their singles did not chart as strongly.

Meanwhile, Harry was collaborating with German disco producer Giorgio Moroder on "Call Me," the theme from the movie American Gigolo. It became Blondie's second transatlantic chart-topper. Blondie's fifth album, Autoamerican, was released in November 1980, and its first single was the reggae-cover "The Tide Is High," which went to number one in the U.S. and U.K. The second single was the rap-oriented "Rapture," which topped the U.S. pop charts and went Top Ten in the U.K. But the band's eclectic style reflected a diminished participation by its members -- Infante sued, charging that he wasn't being used on the records, though he settled and stayed in the lineup.

In 1981, the members of Blondie worked on individual projects, notably Harry's gold-selling solo album, KooKoo. The Best of Blondie was released in the fall of the year. The Hunter, Blondie's sixth album, was released in May 1982, preceded by the single "Island of Lost Souls," a Top 40 hit in the U.S. and U.K. "War Child" also became a Top 40 hit in the U.K., but The Hunter was a commercial disappointment. At the same time, Stein became seriously ill with the genetic disease pemphigus. As a result, Blondie broke up in October 1982, with Deborah Harry launching a part-time solo career while caring for Stein, who eventually recovered.

In the nineties EMI and Chrysalis Records cashed in some more and released several compilations and collections of remixed versions of some of their biggest hits. One of which is Beautiful, a rather ironic title when at the time 95, Debbie was rather volumunous. The remixes on the album which was re-released in a slightly different order and tracklisting are rather inconsistant, Blondie deserved better i think.

In 1998, the original lineup of Harry, Stein, Destri, and Burke reunited to tour Europe, their first series of dates in 16 years; a new LP, No Exit, followed early the next year. After more touring, this was followed by another album the dissapointing, The Curse of Blondie, in 2003, and a DVD of the Live by Request program from A&E was released in 2004. In 2006, Blondie celebrated their 30th anniversary with induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the release of Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision, a best-of collection that contained all their classic videos as well. This week they kicked off a new world tour at the amphitheatre in Ra'anana, Israel.



01 - Union City Blues (Diddy's Power And Passion Mix) (8:34)
02 - Dreaming (Utah Saints Mix) (6:21)
03 - Rapture (K-Klassic Radio Mix) (4:21)
04 - Heart Of Glass (Diddy's Adorable Illusion Mix) (7:26)
05 - Sunday Girl (Hardly Handbag Mix) (7:35) 
06 - Call Me (Debbie Does Dallas) (6:19)
07 - Atomic (Diddy's 12" Mix) (6:50)
08 - The Tide Is High (Sand Dollar Mix) (7:04) 
09 - Hanging On The Telephone (Blu Peter Nose Bleed Handbag Mix) (6:10)
10 - Fade Away & Radiate (Black Dog 108BPM Mix) (5:18)
11 - Dreaming (The Sub-Urban Dream Mix) (5:57)
12 - Atomic (Armand's Short Circuit Mix) (5:07)

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Sarah McLachlan - Remixed( 01 ^ 162mb)

Sarah McLachlan was born on January 28, 1968, and adopted in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a child, she took voice lessons, along with studies in classical piano and guitar. McLachlan signed to Nettwerk in 87 before having written a single song.This prompted her to move to Vancouver, British Columbia. There she recorded the first of her albums, Touch, in 1988, which received both critical and commercial success and included the hit song "Vox". Her 1991 album, Solace, was her mainstream breakthrough in Canada, spawning the hit singles "The Path of Thorns (Terms)" and "Into the Fire". 1994's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was an immediate smash hit in Canada. From her Nettwerk connection, her piano version of the song "Possession" was included on the first Due South soundtrack in 1996. Over the next two years, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy quietly became McLachlan's international breakthrough as well, scaling the charts in a number of countries.

McLachlan returned in 1997 with Surfacing, her best selling album to date. Earning her two Grammy awards and four Junos, the album has since sold over 11 million copies worldwide and brought her much international success. Still in the spotlight from the album, McLachlan launched the highly popular Lilith Fair tour. It brought together 2 million people over its three-year history and raised more than $7 million for charities. It was the most successful all-female music festival in history. In 1997, McLachlan co-wrote and provided guest vocals on the Delerium song "Silence" for their album Karma . This song achieved a massive amount of top 40 airplay when released as a single in late 2000. 1999's multi-platinum Mirrorball chronicled McLachlan's performances on that tour and was her first live release. 

In 2001 she released a trance-remix album, certainly not the style of music McLachlan is known for, but it would reach a new audience demographic that can at the very least appreciate her gorgeous voice. Once McLachlan's vocals are introduced to these generic trance-dance pieces, there's no mistaking what songs they are from, since verse and chorus are left mostly intact., The DJs work hard to give more dynamics to her ethereal, waif-like voice, lifted from four different albums' worth of material. In 2003, after a short hiatus from the business, she put out the successful Afterglow, followed by the live CD/DVD Afterglow Live. The album eventually went four-times platinum, the DVD double platinum, and McLachlan continued to tour through 2005.



01 - Fear (Hybrid's Super Collider Mix edit) (6:48)
02 - Sweet Surrender (DJ Tiësto Mix) (7:03)
03 - Angel (Dusted Remix) (5:29)
04 - I Love You (BT Mix) (9:00)
05 - Silence (DJ Tiësto's In Search Of Sunrise Remix) (11:31)
06 - Black (William Orbit Mix) (6:58)
07 - Possession (Rabbit In The Moon Mix) (5:52)
08 - Hold On (BT Mix) (7:43)
09 - Plenty (Fade Mix) (10:23)

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Laibach - Anthems Remix ( 04 ^ 179mb)

I posted Anthems one two days ago and as announced then here's the other. The two descriptors Laibach dislike the most -- Teutonic and Wagnerian -- best describe the Slovenian band for newcomers, but as Anthems displays, they're much more than that. The second disc of remixes is the real treat for the faithful, rounding up hard to find 12"s and offering a fractured, aggressive, and even more menacing view of the band. Smart choices like Umek, Richie Hawtin, and Philipp Erb strip the music down to the bare essentials and Detroit the heck out of the tunes. Sounding unlike any of the other remixes but just as welcome, the mysteriously named Kraftbach rip apart "Geburt Einer Nation" with equal parts smirk and scowl and enough robotic bleeping to make you think a Ralf or Florian were involved. For an impossible-to-compile band, Anthems is as good as it gets and fully justifies itself.





01 - Das Spiel Ist Aus (Ouroborots Mix) (4:06) 
02 - Liewerk - 3.Oktober (Kraftbach Mix) (4:21) 
03 - Wir Tanzen Ado Hynkel (Zeta Reticula Remix) (5:39)
04 - Final Countdown (Beyond The Infinite Juno Reactor Mix) (7:38) 
05 - God Is God (Optical Vocal Mix) (5:44)
06 - War (Ultraviolence Meets Hitman Mix) (6:19) 
07 - God Is God (Diabolig Mix) (3:36) 
08 - Final Countdown (Mark Stent Alternate Mix) (5:48) 
09 - Wirtschaft Ist Tot (Late Night Mix) (5:23) 
10 - Jesus Christ Superstar (Random Logic Mix) (6:22)* 
11 - Wirtschaft Ist Tot (R. Hawtin Hardcore Noise Mix) (5:18) 
12 - Brat Moj (Random Logic Mix) (5:10) 
13 - Smrt Za Smrt (Octex Mix) (7:02) 
14 - Wat (iTurk Mix) (5:29)

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James Brown - Dynamite X (07 ^ 99mb)

In 2006, a select group of international producers, musicians and DJs set out to pay tribute to "Soul Brother Number One." For once "The Hardest Working Man In Show Business" was able to kick back and let others do the work. Unfortunately upon release jan 07 JB passed the peas for the last time and all nostalgic attention was on his great body of work, remixes were close to sacrelige. Hence this collection of fascinating remixes of James Brown's classic hits got largely snubbed..understandible at the time but undeservedly. The variety of approaches in these reworkings is outstanding; each artist explores his own personal "James Brown cosmos" and leaves behind an exceptional musical fingerprint. Still "Soul Brother Number One." rose above it all "It's got to be funky!"...and it is.



01 - Sex Machine (Readymade Jazz Defector Remix) (5:37)
02 - Give It Up Or Turn It Lose (Dzihan & Kamien Remix) (4:02)
03 - Call Me Superbad (Cay Taylan Remix) (5:01)
04 - Give It Up Or Turn It Loose (Fantasista Re-Formation) (4:19)
05 - Funky Drummer (Listen To The Muro Mix) (4:35)
06 - Cold Sweat (Captain Funk Dry Mix) (4:02)
07 - Sunny (Funk Master Jb Vs Funk Master Js Hardboiled Remix) (5:24)
08 - Soul Power (Jungle Funk Mix) (4:35)
09 - Get On The Good Foot (Mr Drunk Remix) (5:46)
10 - Soul Power (Co Fusion Mix) (4:08) 
11 - Call Me Superbad (Cornelius Rework) (6:16)

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