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As a fan of long standing, I find it puzzling that plenty of Talking Heads versions which only ever appeared on singles have never appeared on CD to this day. Puzzling because they were a pretty heavyweight band and were on major labels, not some obscure little indie with no budget to properly archive and store their back catalogue. I’ll no doubt visit a few of the others at some point, but to kick-off with, amongst these as yet unissued on CD versions is the ‘Special Re-Mixed Version’ of ‘Houses in Motion’ which appeared as the A side of the second single to be lifted from the ‘Remain in Light’ album in the UK in May 1981.

Now, at the time, I always thought it seemed a rather ambitious follow-up to the unexpected hit that was ‘Once In A Lifetime’, and sure enough its sly, subliminal funk didn’t really trouble the charts at all. On first listen, the single remix doesn’t seem all that radically different from the album version. The souped-up bass guitar thumps during the chorus the most ear-grabbing alteration to me, along with Brian Eno’s chorus vocals turned down in the mix and some editing scissors taken to Jon Hassell’s trumpet to rein in its pyrotechnics somewhat, while clocking in around the 3 minute 45 secs mark it is somewhat shorter than the album version. But, most differently of all, there is an extra verse added! “Turn myself around, I’m sinking backwards and forwards, I’m moving twice as much, as I was before, I will be digging, at the centre of the Earth, I’ll be down in there, moving in a room”. Oddly enough, the lyrics are to be found on the lyric sheet for ‘Remain In Light’, even though they don’t appear on the album recording. As far as I’m aware, this remix has never appeared on CD format to date. (Though please feel free to get in touch if I’m off the mark here, I’d love to be wrong about this!) Continue reading “Talking Heads – ‘Houses in Motion’ UK 12″ single (Sire, SIR4050T, 1981)”

This is the original issue of Xmal Deutschland’s single, ‘Incubus Succubus’, released in 1982 on 12″ only in West Germany. By mid-1983 Xmal were flavour of the month in the UK music press and by the autumn their then record label, the inimitable 4AD, had issued a re-recorded version in the UK, titled ‘Incubus Succubus II’ on both 7″ and 12″, with a new track, ‘Vito’, on the b-side and of course a beautiful new sleeve design.

This original 12″ however was only issued in West Germany. This original arrangement is not radically different from the more widely distributed 4AD version really, though not the same by any means – but it also has two unique b-sides, ‘Zu Zung Zu Alt’ and ‘Blut Ist Liebe’.

Continue reading “Xmal Deutschland: ‘Incubus Succubus’ West German 12″ single (Zick Zack, ZZ 110, 1982)”