[…continued from last post]

So far, Steven Wilson had added depth to “White China” and fully brought the Celtic aberration of “Man Of Two Worlds” fully onto the Ultravox playing field. Filling it with mystery and intrigue. Where would the rest of the program go? I quickly found out as the formerly tepid “When The Time Comes” sported an extended introduction where the chocolate box drum pattern of the song was much more powerfully syncopated with the heretofore virtually silent in the mix fretless bass of the late Chris Cross was pumped way up to add the vibe of prime JAPAN to the formerly listless mix!

Wow! I cannot believe that Ultravox had buried the song’s strong suit so deep in the mix. It almost sounded like there was nothing but bass synth used occasionally in the track. Now, it sounds like a long-lost track from that mythical Midge Ure + Mick Karn album that was mooted but never was! Given that Ure was such a fan of JAPAN and Karn, why on earth would he have pushed the faders that low on what was clearly a Karl-level performance from Cross? And it only made the drum patterns that Warren Cann was contributing that much stronger by having something to play off them of in the mix.

I also noted and enjoyed the subtle, watery echo on Ure’s vocals, giving them a haunted aspect certainly appropriate for the emotionally bruised mood of the song. Then the coup de grace was delivered in Billy Currie’s melodramatic piano solo for the last minute of the song where he was the delicate icing on a powerful musical cake. By this point I could not wait to order that “Lament” ultrabox I had been waffling on in public forums for almost a year. And I was even wondering what magic Wilson could work with the well-nigh unsalvagable “U-VOX!” If it were at an arm’s reach I cannot deny that I would be making hard decisions right now.

“A Friend I Called Desire” was a strong ending to the “Lament” album, but of course Wilson managed to dig buried gold out of the mix right up front as the externded remix opened with Warren Cann’s isolated backing vocal where he was reciting the lyrics in the song’s middle eight: “pain…lust…want…hurt…lies…fear…urge…feel” as the drums faded in with the femme BVs. That’s right, we got yet more of Warren Cann’s elegant baritone than we were given initially in the song, where it was mixed far below Ure’s own voice pitched higher to simply fatten up the attack. Now it was the attack!

Then we got a few bars of the classic motorik beat of Cann’s drums along with prominent spotlight to the deft bass work of Cross once more. Then Wilson juxtaposed Ure’s guitar strums with yet more tremolo for a more impactful contrapuntal riffage. Then the vocals of Ure began with the aforementioned spoken middle eight with him in the traditional dominant place in the mix between his and Cann’s voice work.

Then Wilson isolated the “Paperhouse” guitar riff that was something new from the Midge Ure bag of tricks, though in 1984, I’d almost assume that he was going for an Edge/U2 vibe with that. But as a Scotsman, I’ll hold out the hope that he was consciously channeling Alan Rankine [just like The Edge had obviously done]. Then we had a verse with just Ure, drums and bass for a spacious power that was more focused than the old mix had been, with the synth patches and guitars in there as well. Sometimes, less is more! It certainly made the tremolo guitar riff pop more with less to distract.

Then in the song’s climax, he reversed the up front gambit with Cann by isolating Ure’s higher register take of the “pain…lust…lies…” rap without Cann’s take filling the bottom end. Starting the song with Cann, then having both repeat the hook with Ure voice solo at the very end as the energy levels were heightened by Currie’s pitch bending synth solo immediately prior. Then the Currie solo returned with Midge’s “Paperhouse” rhythm guitar riffing over it for good measure.

The intelligence and spatial reconfiguration of these songs speaks well to the years of experience that Mr. Wilson has in remixing tracks for surround sound and 2.0. We knew he was the right man for the job when he managed to revise the mix on one of the best sounding albums ever…”Rage In Eden,” and not only didn’t end up with egg on his face [where my money was, frankly] but actually managed to convince myself and others that his was the definitive take.

Now he’s directed his attention to what I consider the runt of the classic UreVox litter [everything after this was not classic canon in my book…] and has invested the material with the care to make every aspect of it gleam with a newfound vitality. Chris Cross was certainly the big winner here with his frankly astonishing performances getting the spotlight they have deserved for 40 years. One can only hope that Chris Cross got to enjoy these mixes before his untimely death earlier this year.

The packaging of the album [at 33 minutes @ 33 R.P.M. that’s no longer an EP…] was also subtle and classic with the plain black sleeve getting a nod to the 1984 limited edition version of Peter Saville’s “Lament” sleeve where the black card was thermographically printed with the grid pattern used here. Only being knocked out for the large, mysterious “#6” at top right. Apparently, the “Lament” ultrabox will be a five LP vinyl box and the notion was that this was the missing sixth disc of that set, which has yet to be announced. However, following on this triumph, I am on tenterhooks awaiting its announcement.

It’s been said that one of the discs in that box will be extended remixes of the entire album by Wilson as well as remix mavens Blank + Jones…and Moby. As for Mr. Wilson, he’s earned his strips by this point as he’s managed to make me care about “Man Of Two Worlds” in a big way where there had only been inertia prior. And he’s taken “When The Time Comes” from tepid to torrid by making it sound like a long-lost Mick Karn track, courtesy of Chris Cross. And what he did with songs I already loved was just as powerful. Blank + Jones did a full album of post-modern mixes of ZTT classics by Propaganda and FGTH that was just as strong a project as this. And as for Moby, I expect the norm… he’ll strip out Cross’ full bodied bass playing and Cann’s drumming and replace them with a soft synth plug-in of his own perfunctory rhythm programming. Sigh. It’s just what he does. But two out of three ain’t bad, as Meatloaf would say.

Meanwhile, if you want to get a copy of this record, because two of these four tracks [allegedly side A] will not be a part of the remix disc I just described in the “Lament” ultrabox, then act in haste. There were only 1500 of these worldwide and I can’t see them in Apple Music/iTunes so it doesn’t look like they are streaming. And if you care about Ultravox, you owe it to yourself to grab one of these while it’s still possible! The GZ pressing isn’t too bad [I’ll rate it a B] as these things go, but that “Man Of Two Worlds” mix needs to be in every Ultravox’s fan’s own personal Record Cells.

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