The annual Record Store Day orgy of new and limited edition releases has come and gone and once more served up a new ZTT label release that has proved too tempting to resist, in this case an album-length release dedicated to eight versions of one song alone, ‘Dr. Mabuse’. What do you mean who needs an album of eight different versions of one song?! This is only ‘Part 1’ – there’s even more to come at some future as yet unspecified date! It is the single’s 40th anniversary too, don’tcha know?!
With seemingly undue haste – there is only two years between ‘Glimmer: Best of John Foxx’, covered in the previous post, and the subject of this post, here we have ‘Metatronic’. What did this compilation bring, that warranted it coming so soon after ‘Glimmer’, you may well wonder?
Continue reading “John Foxx compilations across the years Part 5”
Moving on from 2001 to 2008 and the next John Foxx compilation that was to emerge, ‘Glimmer: Best of John Foxx’. The metamatic.com website’s cryptic summary for 2008 states “Interlude. Operation by proxy and semantic extension. Despatched a couple of robot agents to the other side of the world, and hid in Durham Cathedral. Partial manifestation in the cobbled squares of Europe. An interrupted radio broadcast from Shinjuku. Remixed and remastered. Ambushed in Bethnal Green by Dub-terrorist Editions, Ltd armed with sprayguns – fended them off with x-ray vision and an old suit.”
‘Remixed and remastered’ was the order of the day here for the particular items of interest, with ‘Glimmer: Best of John Foxx’ acting as an advance landing party in September for a fuller scale double-disc CD remastering re-issue programme for three of John’s Virgin-era albums following shortly thereafter in October 2008. As for the remixing…more on that later under ‘Additionally of interest..’ below.
Continue reading “John Foxx compilations across the years Part 4”
Bill Nelson has been a firm favourite of mine for a long time now and so, I can’t begin to tell you how welcome a release this CD was when it was announced. I had been a member of the ‘Acquitted By Mirrors’ (and later incarnations) of Bill Nelson’s fan club/information service while they were on the go, so I already had a few of the exclusive fan club EPs that this release is compiled from already, but there were a lot of gaps. So, the prospect of a release that gathered them together was mouthwatering – and I got my order in super-quick, as Bill Nelson releases have a tendency to sell out in record time and consequently sell for inflated sums on the resale market.
‘Times Square’ was one of those movies that tapped into the late ‘70s music scene vibe and fashions and which I read about in the pages of ‘Smash Hits’ and ‘Record Mirror’, my two go-to music rags of 1980, rather than actually see at the time. I had been to see the UK film ‘Breaking Glass’ in August or September of 1980 (memory is hazy on dates) and this US flick while quite different and a whole other story and perspective had a similar appeal. But funds were tight back then and it passed by its cinema release and it wasn’t until a few years later that I saw it in the days of home VHS rental, which is more likely a 1982/1983 timeframe, long after the hype.
Continue reading “‘Times Square’ – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack US LP (RSO RS-2-4203, 1980)”
