In my 30+ years of collecting music, I completely forgot that I had this track in my arsenal of 12″ records.  I do not even remember buying this record at all.  A few days ago I was going through my record collection, looking for another track …but along the way I came upon this Jeopardy 12″.  Thus I reacted with such enthusiasm as if I’d just discovered/heard the track for the very first time.  Perhaps my elder brother was the one who bought it in 1983, no?  I do not know for sure; I do not recall.  Nonetheless, I love the song.  It has been YEARS since I’ve listened to Jeopardy.  The record was very dirty.  I cleaned it up as much as possible, recorded it straight into Protools and did as much mastering to it as I could.  I utilized Waves’ R-EQ4 equalizers, Waves R-Compressors, Lexicon Vintage Plate Reverb and Waves L3 ultra-maximizer software/digital plugins …in order to enhance the sonics and widen the stereo-field of Jeopardy (both sides/versions of the record).  Great, timeless track from 1983 when it was first released.  It reached only #2 spot, just under Michael Jackson’s Thriller single being #1 in the top-10 music charts at that time.

Greg Kihn Band – “Jeopardy” (Dance Mix)…

Artist: Greg Kihn Band

Title: Jeopardy (Dance Mix)

Year: 1983

Label: Beserkley Records

Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.

Greg Kihn Band – “Jeopardy” (Dance Mix) (mp3)

Greg Kihn Band – “Jeopardy” (Instrumental Dub)…

Artist: Greg Kihn Band

Title: Jeopardy (Instrumental Dub)

Year: 1983

Label: Beserkley Records

Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.

Greg Kihn Band – “Jeopardy” (Instrumental Dub) (mp3)

Music Video: Greg Kihn Band – “Jeopardy”…

Over The Shoulder is one incredible track (by Ministry) that was way ahead of its time.  Rolling, pounding synth bassline — sequenced with 16TH-notes across the 4/4 bar/measure timescale.  Industrial clinging & clanging sounds.  It was this track which first exposed me to industrial music after watching the music video.  I was like What the ‘F’ …and… What kind of music is that?

To me, I loved those industrial hard-edged sounds over a dance groove.  I was glad to be introduced to the industrial genre not only because it was new and harder core with metal/guitar elements but also because it had electronic drum machines, synthesizers, stuttering voice/word samples, machine grinds, and overly-precessed vocals.

Therefore… Over The Shoulder gets my Stabbing Basslines stamp of approval.

Ministry – “Over The Shoulder” (12″ Version)…

Artist: Ministry
Title: Over The Shoulder (12″ Version)
Year: 1985
Label: Sire Records Company

Ministry – “Over The Shoulder” (12″ Version) (mp3)

Music Video: Ministry – “Over The Shoulder”…

Sharpe & Numan – “Change Your Mind” (Extended Version)…

Artist: Sharpe & Numan
Title: Change Your Mind (Extended Version)
Year: 1985
Label: Polydor

Sharpe & Numan – “Change Your Mind” (Extended Version) (mp3)

Yaz/Yazoo – “Nobody’s Diary” (Extended Version)…

Artist: Yaz/Yazoo
Title: Nobody’s Diary (Extended Version)
Year: 1983
Label: Mute Records

Yaz/Yazoo – “Nobody’s Diary” (Extended Version) (mp3)

This is one bad-ass remix. Electronic, acid-pop house, 4/4 to the floor. Ben Liebrand at his best.

INXS – “Need You Tonight” (Ben Liebrand Mix)…

Artist: INXS
Title: Need You Tonight (Ben Liebrand Mix)
Year: 1988
Label: Mercury

INXS – “Need You Tonight” (Ben Liebrand Mix) (mp3)

INXS – “Need You Tonight” (Mendelsohn 12″ Mix)

Previously posted last March 2010.

CLICK HERE

Ah, this is one rarity from an outstanding, legendary British artist: Peter Gabriel. There was an actual 12″ record of In Your Eyes which featured the Special Mix. But what made this particular record more special was that the track In Your Eyes (Special Mix) was also featured on the B-side of a Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush 12″ single Don’t Give Up.

I have never opened nor played this record before. Thus, after nearly 25 years, I’ve unsealed it and recorded the track on the B-side to digital.  Therefore, a triple special indeed!

Peter Gabriel – “In Your Eyes” (Special Mix)…

Artist: Peter Gabriel
Title: In Your Eyes (Special Mix)
Year: 1986
Label: Virgin Records
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.

Peter Gabriel – “In Your Eyes” (Special Mix) (mp3)

I must be one of the few lucky ones to own this amazing track on a 12-inch record. I believe only few thousand copies were pressed back in 1984.

Where was I when I’d bought the record?     Ah yes!     It was sometime in late October 1985, after school, at Starsounds record store on Young Street in Toronto. Starsounds was a great record store that sold only 12-inch records of every genre, especially to DJ’s. At that time, I was looking for synth/techno/pop tracks when Axel F by Harold Faltermeyer was hot. Flipping through Starsounds’ bin of old/unsold records, my fingers came to a stop at this one particular vinyl with gloriously colored luminous-orange sleeve: Section 25.

I held the record up in a tilted-angle closer to my eyes just to read its center label. It was hard to read, because the words and fonts were ultra moderno that were printed with light, shiny luminous colors. Yeah… a record looking great in graphic-design but lacking in function (such as reading its textual content).

Even though I had no idea who Section 25 was, my gut said: This the record you’re looking for, buddy! Just the words 45 A Factory Record and Restructure From Fact 90 on the center label were enough to convince me the record was INDEED an electronic one that was meant for me. Still in my formal shirt/tie/jacket school uniform, I bought the record with my only $20-Canadian. Going home in the subway (the TTC), I was staring at the record and second-guessing what it might sound like. Once I got home, I ran to my room and dropped the needle to the record. The usual at the start of any record: few seconds of crackles, scratches and pops…

…And then there was music!

The track on Side-B starts with reverse tom-tom drums followed by reversed-&-gated 808 claps in 1/16th-note progression. Then –BAM– the beat drops like a cyber-atomic bomb: → Heavy industrial baseline → Synth bleeps/zaps all over the stereo-field → Lush synthesizer and Mellotron pads → Cyberpunk female lead vocals → Whispery male backup vocals. Electronic techno industrial pop bliss → → Hands down, an absolute electronic industrial masterpiece!

Section 25 – “Looking From A Hilltop” (Megamix)…

Artist: Section 25
Title: Looking From A Hilltop (Megamix)
Year: 1984
Label: A Factory Record
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.

Section 25 – “Looking From A Hilltop” (Megamix) (mp3)

Music Video: Section 25 – “Looking From A Hilltop” (version 2)…

The Latin Rascals…

Artist: The Latin Rascals
Title: Beyond The Future
Year: 1986
Label: Sutra Records
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.

The Latin Rascals – “Beyond The Future” (mp3)

More About The Latin Rascals…

I find The Lastin Rascals to be class-act with stellar production and rich sound, standing on their own plateau. Just take a listen to their remix production on the following blogs which I’ve posted here previously:

• Information Society – “What’s On Your Mind” (all mix versions on that blog); and
• Mantronix – “Simple Simon” (You Dubba Regard)

According to Music Guide and The Latin Rascals‘ MySpace page:

Producers/DJs Albert Cabrera and Tony Moran — collectively known as the Latin Rascals — got their start as movers and shakers on the budding early-’80s New York City club scene, hosting an influential continuous-mix show on local dance radio. The duo went on to mastermind a number of Latin freestyle dance tracks, including work for TKA and The Cover Girls, among others. In 1999, the collection Mixmasters Vol. 1 was released, featuring reworkings of various Latin Rascals mixes by an array of DJs.

According to Answers.com about Albert Cabrera:

Better known as one half of The Latin Rascals, Albert Cabrera, along with partner Tony Moran, helped create the mid-’80s, edit heavy genre of dance music known as freestyle. Working as DJs in the early ’80s, the duo realized that after the disco backlash dance music wasn’t the most popular of genres. Still, they were working in the U.S. capital of club culture, New York, and after much hustling they were able to score a high profile gig as mix masters on WKTU’s popular “lunch time mix” program. It was there that they unleashed their bedroom edits, songs by acts like Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones that had been re-mixed and lengthened. Cabrera and Moran were then tapped by Fever records to produce The Cover Girls and the resulting single, “Show Me,” became a club hit. For the next few years the duo had a good little run, releasing their own dance singles, as well as re-mixing many a popular rap, rock, and R&B act. Their success was based largely on re-tooling other artists’ hits, though, and eventually the public’s interest in this format diminished and the duo parted ways.

The following FAQ about The Latin Rascals is cited from the Freestyle Dance Party site:

How did they meet?

Albert Cabrera was selling tapes of music he liked for $10, and walked into Dowtown Records, where Tony Moran just so happened to be working. Cabrera played some of his mastermixes for Moran, and on one occasion, Carlos deJesus was there.

Who was Carlos deJesus?

Carlos deJesus was a radio personality on WKTU. He overheard one of Cabrera’s mixes and asked him for a copy. The problem was, all of Cabrera’s mixes were on cassette, while the station needed them on reel to reel.

Well, guess who had a reel to reel?  Who?

Tony Moran, of course, and he let Albert Cabrera borrow his, for which he gave him due credit.

How did they get their start?

They shook up the New York club scene in the early 1980s by hosting an influential continuous-mix show on a local dance radio station, WKTU. They would take other artists’ already popular songs and splice them together. They later moved to Kiss-FM.

Then what happened?

Arthur Baker contacted them.

Where have I heard his name before?

Well, he was the producer of “Planet Rock” and “I.O.U.” amongst many other hits. Arthur Baker gave the Latin Rascals their first editing job on the song “Breaker’s Revenge.” Soon, Aldo Marin from Cutting Records hired the duo to edit “B-Boy’s Break Dance” for which they were paid, to the surprise of the duo, who only wanted the experience and opportunity.

Then what happened?

Arthur Baker was so pleased with the results that he sent more remixing and editing work their way, including work on recordings by Hall and Oates, Diana Ross, and Brenda K. Starr.

Soon the Latin Rascals were a big hit on the dance floor. The Latin Rascals are often credited with making hits out of early freestyle artists TKA, Safire and the Cover Girls. Riding on the crest of their success as producers, Cabrera and Moran released their own material as the Latin Rascals.

But did they still produce for others?

Oh yes. In fact, Show Me was Tony Moran’s first top 40 gold record and really started the Freestyle movement in music. Many of that genre’s biggest stars, from TKA, Safire, and Lisette Melendez, all benefited from the talented duo.

What music did they make for themselves?

They made two instrumental albums, Macho Mozart and Bach To The Future, making classical music rather dance-able. Even “Arabian Knights” was originally an instrumental, but it did so well that the Latin Rascals decided to improve upon it by laying down a vocal track headed by Tony.

What was the effect of that?

Well, fans ate it up. That record put the duo in demand for shows nationwide, where the crowds would sing along to the words.

Wasn’t one of them married to someone else in freestyle?

That’s right! Albert Cabrera married Safire, who was greatly successful with “Boy I’ve Been Told.” Unfortunately, their synchronized success was also the undoing of the marriage, due to conflicting schedules and outside influences.

Well, I guess Albert still had Tony.

Yeah, but that professional pairing ended by growing apart. Tony was more into singing while Albert was into freestyle. Still, the breakup of Latin Rascals was amicable and each partner remains grateful to the other.

Then what happened?

Albert Cabrera wanted to keep making freestyle music but, by this time, its popularity had fallen just as disco had years before. He tried to update freestyle by blending it with the trendy trip-hop genre in his album Trip Hop Dance 2000. It featured the voices of Judy Torres, Corina, Lil’ Suzy, Joey Kidd, Sam Savon and Brenda K. Starr, while Tony Moran came back in to re-record an updated version of “Arabian Knights.”

Since then, what has Cabrera been doing?

He went to school for 5 years and began producing bass music, as he saw it as the closest to freestyle. He re-teamed with freestyle legend “Little” Louie Vega, creating “Rascal Dubs” in house music. He’s also been working with artists as musically diverse as KC and the Sunshine Band, David Morales, Mariah Carey, and Tori Amos.

Tommy Musto :: C. T. Satin – “I Found A Friend”…

Artist: C. T. Satin [Tommy Musto]
Title: I Found A Friend
Year: 1987
Label: Underworld
Media Source: Recorded straight from 12-inch record to enhanced digital.

C. T. Satin [Tommy Musto] – “I Found A Friend” (mp3)

Mid Summer 2009, a very close and longtime friend of mine RC Lair came to my side of town and hung out with me. Before going inside the Ocean Club for drinks, we stayed inside my car to listen to the entire Hale Bopp mix CD which he’d done in the mid 90′s. All the tracks on that CD were retro classics of electric disco/dance/italo ranging from the late 70′s through the mid 80′s. By the time we reached track-05, I was going through the car’s roof from excitement. The track was just THAT awesome … pure electronic analog circuitry … melodic and true to its form and genre its era. And I JUST HAD TO HAVE IT … and own it! So I asked RC who/what that track was, but he couldn’t remember from the top of his head, and he wasn’t going to look through his entire record collection at any time soon, because they were all stored in boxes. Now I was on a serious mission to hunt for a full-length copy of track-05. After six weeks of unsuccessful digging and searching, I still had no name of the artist nor title of the track.

A few days later, my producer friend Peter Hecher exposed me to Casco who was an Italian legend DJ and Italo music producer. I checked out his MySpace page, his main site and all other webpages related to him; listened to all his amazing original/classic Italo tracks; and downloaded few of his old live mix-sets. When listening to one of his Italo mix-sets … low and behold … track-05! Thus immediately I sent Casco an email requesting him to identify track-05 for me. Few hours later he sent me a reply, “Mito – Droid“.

After searching the net for days, I was able to find only bad quality MP3 copies. But just recently, over the net, there was a nice fellow from Europe who had an actual 12-inch record of Mito/Droid and, at my request, was kind enough to record and send me a good quality .wav digital file of it.

However, during the entire period of searching for Mito/Droid, I had discovered that it is in fact a remix of an original 1978 “Droid” track by Automat. According to SongBooks blog:

Automat was a project of a disc, from the Italians Musumarra, Gizzi and Maggi. The first two were members of the pop band La Bottega dell’Arte that was successful in Italy between 1976 and 1984. The “Automat” LP was released in 1978 as a kind of demo Synthesizer MCS70 (Memory Controller Synthesizer 70) built by Maggi. The funny highlight of the LP is the band Droid, who say they were the opening theme of a TV news at TV Globo (Brazil) in the early 80′s. In fact parts of this theme were used twice in television news, in one of them no Globo Esporte noon. This all in it for 81/82. But it was common to the Globo television, since I remember that was used in the novel called “Brilhante”, type in 80/81. There are many more electronic themes that the Globo TV used in the field of the Fantástico.

I was able to find and download the entire Automat album on torrents. There were only four tracks in total, and all of them were in mono. At first I’d thought it was an accident by the person who recorded the album to digital, but in fact the original source of recording was done in mono. So I took the liberty to re-master Automat’s Droid, making it pseudo-stereo, adding true stereo ambient reverbs with independent left/right parameter settings, and enhancing the track’s overall low, mid and high range across its spectrum frequency (by using Waves Linear Phase Multiband plugin, among other RTAS plugins, in Protools). I’ve included both the original/mono and my enhanced re-mastered versions for comparison.

All in all, I find that Droid sounds very similar to Vangelis‘ Pulstar (1976). To my ears, it seems that Droid borrowed heavily from the melody of Pulstar with noticeable variations, although both manage to stand out away from each other at the same time.

As a bonus, I managed to find a great Italo remix of Pulstar by Hipnosis (thank you Beat Electric).

Mito – “Droid” (12″ Remix)…

Artist: Mito
Title: Droid (12″ Remix)
Year: 1982
Label: Zanza Records

Mito – “Droid” (12″ Remix) (mp3)

Automat – “Droid” (Hashmoder Remaster)…

Artist: Automat
Title: Droid (Hashmoder Remaster)
Year: 1978 (2009)
Label: EMI Odeon

Automat – “Droid” (Hashmoder Remaster) (mp3)

Automat – “Droid” (Original, mono version)…

Artist: Automat
Title: Droid (Original, mono version)
Year: 1978
Label: EMI Odeon

Automat – “Droid” (Original) (mp3)

Vangelis – “Pulstar” (Vangelis original)…

Artist: Vangelis
Title: Pulstar
Year: 1976
Label: RCA

Vangelis – “Pulstar” (mp3)

Hipnosis – “Pulstar” (remix of Vangelis)…

Artist: Hipnosis
Title: Pulstar
Year: 1982 ?
Label: ?

Hipnosis – “Pulstar” (mp3)

Vangelis in his studio, early 80's.