How Does the New Heaven 17 BSOG Compare To My Attempt?

Posted on February 12, 2019 by postpunkmonk

Finally, someone got off of their keister and compiled an actual Heaven 17 BSOG!

Heaven 17 fans have been abuzz in the period where the blog was inactive lately! But that didn’t stop the world from spinning or the comments to pile up elsewhere. But it’s true! Demon Records Group are releasing a 10xCD Heaven 17 BSOG with a prodigious amount of compiled rarities. One of the things I really respect about this was that they went for maximum saturation. None of this “keep the sacred album intact” and lose 35 minutes that could be filled with rare remixes! We prefer density of content to polite sprawling and worse, lost content because the space after the album was being wasted.

On March, 29th – the same day that the Simple Minds “Regeneration 2001-2014” box is released, my money will be being set aside for this product instead. The ten discs are jam packed with rarities as we will see below. The format is a 12″ x12″ box complete with large format 36 page book of liner notes and ephemera. As close as we’ll get to that H17 coffee table book, I’m afraid. The ten CDs comprise all of their Virgin Records releases, so nothing will be included from later than the early 90s era of post-modern mixes that saw “Temptation” actually improved and hit the UK top five for the second time in a decade. What’s in store for us?

Demon Records | UK | 10xCD | HEAVENOX01 | 2019

Heaven 17: Play To Win – The Virgin Records Years UK 10xCD [2019]

CD 1: PENTHOUSE AND PAVEMENT

  1. (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
  2. Penthouse And Pavement
  3. Play To Win
  4. Soul Warfare
  5. Penthouse Side
  6. Geisha Boys And Temple Girls
  7. Let’s All Make A Bomb
  8. The Height Of The Fighting
  9. Song With No Name
  10. We’re Going To Live For A Very Long Time
  11. (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang [7” version]
  12. I’m Your Money
  13. Play To Win [7” version]
  14. Penthouse And Pavement [7” version]
  15. The Height Of The Fighting (He-La-Hu)
  16. The Decline Of The West [by B.E.F]
  17. B.E.F. Ident [by B.E.F]
  18. Are Everything
  19. Play
  20. Honeymoon In New York [by B.E.F]
  21. He-La-Hu

CD 2: THE LUXURY GAP

  1. Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry
  2. Who’ll Stop The Rain
  3. Let Me Go
  4. Key To The World
  5. Temptation
  6. Come Live With Me
  7. Lady Ice And Mr Hex
  8. We Live So Fast
  9. The Best Kept Secret
  10. Let Me Go [US 7” version]
  11. Temptation [7” version]
  12. Come Live With Me [7” version]
  13. Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry (Part 1)
  14. Let Me Go [instrumental]
  15. Let’s All Make A Bomb [new version]
  16. Song With No Name [new version]
  17. Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry (Part 2)

CD 3: HOW MEN ARE

  1. Five Minutes To Midnight
  2. Sunset Now
  3. This Is Mine
  4. The Fuse
  5. Shame Is On The Rocks
  6. The Skin I’m In
  7. Flamedown
  8. Reputation
  9. And That’s No Lie
  10. This Is Mine [7” version]
  11. …(And That’s No Lie) [7” version]
  12. Counterforcce
  13. Counterforce II
  14. Skin
  15. Mine [instrumental]
  16. The Heaven 17 Megamix

CD 4: PLEASURE ONE

  1. Contenders
  2. Trouble
  3. Somebody
  4. If I Were You
  5. Low Society
  6. Red
  7. Look At Me
  8. Move Out
  9. Free
  10. The Foolish Thing To Do [featuring Jimmy Ruffin] [Version 1]
  11. Contenders [7” version]
  12. Contenders [US 7” edit]
  13. Trouble [7” version]
  14. My Sensitivity (Gets In The Way) [featuring Jimmy Ruffin]
  15. The Foolish Thing To Do [featuring Jimmy Ruffin] [Version 2]
  16. The Foolish Thing To Do [featuring Jimmy Ruffin] [instrumental]
  17. Excerpts from ‘Diary Of A Contender’

CD 5: TEDDY BEAR, DUKE & PSYCHO

  1. Big Square People
  2. Don’t Stop For No One
  3. Snake And Two People
  4. Can You Hear Me?
  5. Hot Blood
  6. The Ballad Of Go Go Brown
  7. Dangerous
  8. I Set You Free
  9. Train Of Love In Motion
  10. Responsibility
  11. The Last Seven Days
  12. The Foolish Thing To Do
  13. The Ballad Of Go Go Brown [version]
  14. Train Of Love In Motion [7” version]
  15. Slow All Over
  16. Work
  17. Giving Up

CD 6 : DEMONSTRATION DISC: THE LOST DEMOS 1980

  1. Penthouse And Pavement [original demo]
  2. (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang [original demo]
  3. Play To Win [original demo instrumental]
  4. Soul Warfare [original demo]
  5. Are Everything [original demo]
  6. BEF Ident [alternate version]
  7. Decline Of The West [alternate version]
  8. Rise Of The East [alternate version]
  9. Music To Kill Your Parents By [alternate version]
  10. Uptown Apocalypse [alternate version]
  11. A Baby Called Billy [alternate version]
  12. Rhythmic Experiment 1
  13. Rhythmic Experiment 2
  14. Boys Of Buddha Experiment
  15. At The Height Of The Fighting [original rhythm track]
  16. Rhythmic Loop Experiment
  17. Funky Experiment
  18. Song Experiment
  19. Heavy Drum Experiment
  20. Play To Win [original demo with vocals]
  21. Groove Thang
  22. Temptation [original demo]

CD 7: SPECIAL FORTIFIED DANCE MIXES TO ENHANCE DANCEABILITY #1

  1. (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang [12” version]
  2. I’m Your Money [12” version]
  3. Play To Win [12” version]
  4. Penthouse And Pavement [12” version]
  5. Let Me Go [12” version]
  6. Temptation [12” version]
  7. Who’ll Stop The Rain [12” version]
  8. Come Live With Me [12” version]
  9. Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry [Parts I & II – uninterrupted single version]
  10. Sunset Now [extended version]
  11. This Is Mine [extended version]
  12. …(And That’s No Lie) [remixed to enhance its danceability]

CD 8: SPECIAL FORTIFIED DANCE MIXES TO ENHANCE DANCEABILITY #2

  1. Penthouse And Pavement [Remix]
  2. Let Me Go [Endless Version]
  3. Play To Win [Endless Version]
  4. Contenders [Dance Version]
  5. Contenders [Go Go Version]
  6. (Big) Trouble
  7. The Ballad Of Go-Go Brown [Extended Version]
  8. Train Of Love In Motion [The Mainline Mix]
  9. Temptation [Brothers In Rhythm Remix]
  10. (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang [Rapino Club Mix]
  11. Penthouse And Pavement [Tommy D’s Master Remix]
  12. Let Me Go [“Hon, Its Flawless” Mix]

CD 9: SPECIAL FORTIFIED DANCE MIXES TO ENHANCE DANCEABILITY #3

  1. Play [12” version]
  2. Penthouse And Pavement [instrumental 7” version]
  3. Penthouse And Pavement [instrumental 12” version]
  4. Who’ll Stop The Rain [US dub version]
  5. We Live So Fast [12” version]
  6. Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry [dub version]
  7. Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry [The Extended Dance Version]
  8. This Is Mine [Filmix]
  9. This Is Mine [Cinemix]
  10. Contenders [US Club Mix]
  11. Trouble [US Club Mix]

CD10: SPECIAL FORTIFIED DANCE MIXES TO ENHANCE DANCEABILITY#4

  1. Temptation [Brothers In Rhythm Remix Edit]
  2. (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang [Rapino Edit]
  3. Penthouse And Pavement [Tommy D’s Master Edit]
  4. (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang [Democratic Edit]
  5. Let Me Go [I Trance Alone Mix]
  6. Temptation [Brothers In Rhythm instrumental]
  7. (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang [Democratic Rapino]
  8. Penthouse And Pavement [Mr Big Buckles And His Amazing Ride]
  9. Temptation [7″ backing track]
  10. (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang [Democratic Instrumental]
  11. Penthouse And Pavement [Original Vibe Mix]
  12. Let Me Go [Let Me House You]
  13. Penthouse And Pavement [D’s Super Disco Dub Mix]
  14. Temptation [Orchestral Theme From Temptation]

All of that is going for £89 [$114.69] in pre-order with amazon UK offering a signed edition [no word on how many copies available] for buyers who have to have it on day one. Since I already have Martyn Ware’s autograph, I’ll be likely to pick this up once it “hits the market” at what I’m betting will be less that three figures, if I time my purchase right. But with these BSOG’s, one cannot be lax. They all seem to accrue in market value so dawdling is not an option. So yeah, I’m pre-sold in buying this; whether its perfect or only near perfect. I’ve made my own box for this band in 2006 and I even remastered and re-compiled a 2nd edition in 2009! So yeah, I’m serious about my Heaven 17!

What I would like to see is how this compares to what I’ve done on my own as an enlightened amateur. So without further ado, my own Heaven 17: Civil Defence Box

REVO | 6xCD | 2011 | REVO 039A

Heaven 17: Civil Defence Box 6xCD

Disc 1

  1. Fascist Groove Thang + B.E.F. Ident #1
  2. Decline Of The West
  3. I’m Your Money
  4. Are Everything
  5. Groove Thang
  6. I’m Your Money [specially fortified dance mix] + B.E.F. Ident #2
  7. Are Everything [specially fortified dance mix]
  8. Play [7” ver.]
  9. Penthouse + Pavement [7” ver.]
  10. Play To Win [12” ver.]
  11. Penthouse + Pavement [7“ inst.]
  12. Play [12” ver.]
  13. Penthouse + Pavement [12” ver.]
  14. At The Height Of The Fighting [He-La-Hu]
  15. Penthouse + Pavement [12” inst. ver.]

Disc 2

  1. Honeymoon In New York
  2. He-La-Hu [inst. ver.]
  3. Wichita Lineman
  4. Perfect Day
  5. Let Me Go [12” ver.]
  6. Temptation [12” ext. ver.]
  7. Let Me Go [inst. ver.]
  8. We Live So Fast [7” mix]
  9. Who Will Stop The Rain [ext. ver.]
  10. We Live So Fast [ext. ver.]
  11. Who Will Stop The Rain [dub ver.]
  12. Come Live With Me [12” ext. ver.]
  13. Let’s All Make A Bomb [new ver.]
  14. Song With No Name [new ver.]
  15. Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry [parts I + II uninterrupted single ver.]
  16. Chase Runner

Disc 3

  1. Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry [ext. dance ver.]
  2. Sunset Now [ext. ver.]
  3. Counterforce
  4. Counterforce II
  5. Sunset Now [12” inst.]
  6. This Is Mine [ext. ver.]
  7. Skin
  8. Mine
  9. …And That’s No Lie [7” ver.]
  10. This Is Mine [filmix]
  11. The Heaven 17 Megamix
  12. This Is Mine [cinemix]
  13. …And That’s No Lie [remixed to enhance dancability]
  14. Contenders [UK dance ver.]

Disc 4

  1. When Your Heart Runs Out of Time [7” ver.]
  2. Excerpts From ‘Diary Of A Contender’
  3. When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time [12” ver.]
  4. Contenders [US 7” ver.]
  5. When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time [drumless]
  6. Penthouse + Pavement [john potoker remix]
  7. Contenders [inst. ver.]
  8. The Foolish Thing To Do [feat. Jimmy Ruffin ver. 1]
  9. Contenders [go-go ver.]
  10. The Foolish Thing To Do [inst. ver.]
  11. Contenders [US Dance ver.]
  12. My Sensitivity [gets in the way]
  13. The Foolish Thing To Do [feat. Jimmy Ruffin ver. 2]
  14. Trouble [at mill mix]
  15. The Ballad Of Go-Go-Brown [ext. ver.]

Disc 5

  1. [Big] Trouble
  2. Slow All Over
  3. The Ballad Of Go-Go Brown [version]
  4. Train Of Love In Motion [mainline mix]
  5. Work
  6. Giving Up
  7. The Last Seven Days
  8. The Foolish Thing To Do [feat. Glenn Gregory]
  9. Designing Heaven [radio mix]
  10. Temptation ‘92 [brothers in rhythm mix]
  11. Designing Heaven [pei mix]
  12. Fascist Groove Thang ’93 [rapino club mix]
  13. Desinging Heaven [starck mix]
  14. Penthouse + Pavement ‘93 [tommy d’s master mix]
  15. Designing Heaven [le corbusier mix]

Disc 6

  1. Designing Heaven [mies van der rohe mix]
  2. We Blame Love [radio mix]
  3. Designing Heaven [rodgers mix]
  4. We Blame Love [7” inst.]
  5. Den Himmel Designen
  6. Theme From Unreal Everything
  7. We Blame Love [ext. ver.]
  8. Holiday
  9. We Blame Love [spacebaby mix]
  10. Sign O’The Times
  11. We Blame Love [matt darey dub mix]
  12. With Or Without You
  13. We Blame Love [ext. inst.]
  14. Temptation [demo ver.]

All very interesting! Tracks that they have but I don’t are blue italic. Tracks I have that are missing from the official box are bold. Cuts on my box from after the Virgin era are grayed out. They seemed to have included every 7″ UK mix and I only opted for those when the results were significantly different enough, since I have the 2006 “Greatest Hits” CD/DVD packed with 7″ edit goodness as shown at left. I did include the US 7″ mixes and I never knew there was a unique US Let Me Go” edit. That was interesting, but a problematic error on their end was leaving the crucial “We Live So Fast” US 7″ remix out. It was the song perfected [it seems even faster…] and is a holdout from “Play To Win: The Virgin Years.”

I opted to include the Glenn Gregory vocal turns from the first B.E.F. album. Sure, they’re covers, but they have every member of H17 on them. And they’re great covers. I also added the Glenn/Claudia single sides for ZTT… because I could! They included two mixes from the “Endless” compilation. I used Potoker’s remix of “Penthouse + Pavement,” but skipped on “Let Me Go,” which simply has a different sampled vocal intro… maybe all of 10 seconds longer. I never had the “Endless” cassette version, where the “Play To Win” version resided, so that’s nifty.

Their lack of “Chase Runner” from the :”Electric Dreams” OST and especially the specially fortified dance mix of “Are Everything” are problematic. On the other hand, they have the “Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry” [dub mix]” which I have on USP 12″ but I swear that there’s nothing unique about it. Was I wrong not to include it?  Finally, they have all of the 1992-1993 post-modern remixes from the “Higher + Higher” greatest hits era that saw “Temptation” so dramatically reconfigured. I only have a few of these, and all of disc 10 is material that I have yet to track down in any other form. That gives this set a full 28 tracks that I did not include in my effort, which was undertaken twice knowing that it was incomplete both times.

The official hype sticker!

Sometimes I wait for a decade or more to source a scant few tracks. Some times I throw caution to the wind and go for it anyway. Knowing full well that it’s possible to think one has a “complete collection” only to find out the bitter truth years later. We’re not getting any younger, so I tend to be finally moving in the more pragmatic direction. And I’ll be moving to buy one of these bad boys sometime this year. I’ve seen these mondo BSOG projects for Erasure and Dead Or Alive and while I could cheer from the sidelines, I do not need that much of those bands. Not so for Heaven 17. I have always loved their political electric funk and the fact that they reformed in 1997 and have been fairly active [though not as active as I’d prefer…] since then has meant that as a still active band that I collect, their value has kept rising in my esteem.

– 30 –

About postpunkmonk

graphic design | software UI design | remastering vinyl • record collector • satire • non-fiction
This entry was posted in BSOG, Core Collection, Want List and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

26 Responses to How Does the New Heaven 17 BSOG Compare To My Attempt?

  1. JT says:
    February 12, 2019 at 4:18 pm

    Let’s hope the mastering on this one isn’t botched. Seems to almost be the rule rather than the exception these days.

    Looks like you can distill your own collection down to two discs now, eh? Or one disc if some of those later remixes are left off… are they any good (the ones on disc 6 of your box)?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • postpunkmonk says:
      February 13, 2019 at 7:51 am

      JT – Well Demon sure screwed the pooch on the 19xCD Dead Or Alive “Sophisticated Boom Box!” There were so many errors on that that the mind positively boggled. To say nothing of the caliber of the mastering. I will say that the “New Gold Dream [81,82,83,84]” SDE I’m currently listening to is well mastered, though I would like to get a copy of the SACD version to hear the DSD mastering. I’ve been very impressed with A/B comparisons of material I have that’s mastered DSD versus other paradigms.

      Maybe my H17 will be a supplement to the new stuff with the details left out and the post-Virgin era. I remember liking most of the mixes from “Bigger Than America” though they were 90s mixes. I don’t have any of the huge dump of remixes [of just 2 songs!] that were commissioned for their “Before/After” album by Ninthwave, their US label. I didn’t care too much for “Before/After.” The only thing political about it was Malcolm Garret’s cover!

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
      • dhrichards says:
        February 14, 2019 at 2:02 pm

        “huge dump” lol- well, we tried. Truth is the band did not have separate track masters for the album except for Hands up To Heaven and so that was about it for remixes. But yeah, it was a lot of remixes. Saying no did not seem to be an option…

        Like

        Reply
        • postpunkmonk says:
          February 14, 2019 at 2:34 pm

          dhrichards – Oh yeah, that’s right! You run Ninthwave, don’t you? So the reason why “Hands Up To Heaven” and “Gonna Make You Fall In Love With Me” were remixed to the ends of the earth was that you only had track masters for those two? Well, that’s very… practical! At least those mixes charted! I thought that “Before/After” was a dynamic dance record full of hooks that completely passed on any pointed political content. I was expecting more than “relationship songs” in the middle of what was then a political dumpster fire of 2005. Of course, we look back at that gentler time with rose-colored glasses now! What I’ve heard from the possibly never arriving next album was much more in line with my hopes for Heaven 17 songs.

          Like

          Reply
  2. jsd says:
    February 13, 2019 at 12:51 am

    I feel like the H17 well has been tapped dry already. There are endless (see what I did there) compilations, remastered deluxe editions, etc. I’ve got most of them! Can’t see my way to this box, nice as it looks. In any event, the quality of the material dropped off rather precipitously after Luxury Gap. How Men Are is about half of a good album, the others after much less. So that’s a whole lot of box full of stuff I don’t care about.

    Like

    Reply
  3. Andy B says:
    February 13, 2019 at 5:22 am

    I ordered this box as soon as I heard about it. Shame about the We Live So Fast US 7” version missing and a few other tracks that I feel deserve a spot more than the mixes from the early 90’s.

    To be honest I got off the Heaven 17 train after How Men Are. I heard a few singles off the next two albums but wasn’t particularly impressed and so never bothered getting the albums. So it will be interesting hearing these two albums for the first time thirty plus years after release!

    Like

    Reply
    • postpunkmonk says:
      February 13, 2019 at 7:38 am

      AndyB – I have to say that I have never liked “Pleasure One.” I didn’t like “How Men Are” that much and at the time I felt that “Pleasure One” was jumping the shark, but I find some merit in “How Men Are” now. I liked the “Contenders” single out of all of it. I actually sold off my CD of “Pleasure One” some years back during a period of culling what I considered dross even from core collection bands Hasta la vista, Gary Numan’s “Outland!” Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Shriekback’s “Go Bang!”

      I ignored Heaven 17 for several years until the very early 90s when chasinvictoria played “Train Of Love In Motion” on his Chas’s Crusty Old Wave radio show, and I was impressed. So I bought “Teddybear, Duke + Psycho” and I found it an enjoyable throwback to the sounds of “Luxury Gap” with some new wrinkles [“Ballad Of Go-Go Brown”] added to the mix. By the time I got the album, they were already defunct, but their re-emergence in 1997 was a big deal for me. I loved “Bigger Than America!”

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
      • MathManDan says:
        February 13, 2019 at 9:33 pm

        I also started ignoring Heaven 17 after “How Men Are,” but much like Eurythmics with Savage, when “Bigger Than America” was released I was very pleasantly surprised. I love it and still listen to it often.

        Like

        Reply
  4. Andy B says:
    February 13, 2019 at 8:26 am

    Monk – I also had mixed feelings about How Men Are. Some good tracks, some very average. I didn’t particularly like the overreliance on the Fairlight. There doesn’t sound like there’s enough depth of sound on many of the tracks to me.

    I only heard Train Of Love In Motion once when the band ‘performed’ it on some kids’ Saturday morning TV show, in the UK, at the time of it’s release. It didn’t grab me at the time. Maybe with a few listens I might feel differently.

    Gary Numan’s Outland!! That’s one poor album. And not his only one from the late 80’s/early 90’s.

    Like

    Reply
    • postpunkmonk says:
      February 13, 2019 at 11:30 am

      AndyB – Yep. You hit the nail on the head with the Fairlight. They used it for good seasoning on “Luxury Gap” but they went overboard on “How Men Are.” The songwriting is nowhere near as good. I blame the Fairlight… and cocaine!

      “Outland” was the Numan album I could find almost no merit in. I like the brief instrumental interludes. I still have a copy of “Warriors” and “Machine + Soul” since they are part of boxed Numan sets, so I can’t divest myself of them so easily. Even so, they are measurably better.

      Like

      Reply
    • MathManDan says:
      February 13, 2019 at 9:38 pm

      Gary Numan: I was quite the Numanoid, and liked much of “Berserker” and “Strange Charm.” But after those, he lost me.

      Like

      Reply
  5. Tim says:
    February 13, 2019 at 1:10 pm

    Ultimately I think what you’ve made already is better. I understand the bug that says get it all, it’s up to buyers like yourself to decide if the quantity of “I don’t have’’ on a release like this is worth that cost. You’ve already done an admirable and remarkable job on your home made version.
    A point of separation that I have on these sets is the inclusion of 7’’ edits. I can see it if it is a different mix of the song (i.e. the Beatmasters take on the Pet Shop Boys “I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Sort of Thing”) but including all these 7’’ edits to me is just boggling, and, in my opinion, pads the size of the final product by 1 – 2 discs and associated costs
    I much prefer something like the Lee Hazlewood Industries set, while not being a comprehensive career collection (it focuses on one label that his work was on) the set has a stunning hardbound book. A bit too much frou frou in the book (plane ticket reproductions, really?) but if you’re going to sell me anything other than music with this I want a book of this quality.
    A quibble with your post….including the Erasure set isn’t really apples-to-apples in comparison. It’s really a huge singles set with some curated discs by the core members of the band. Sets by acts like Heaven 17, Dead or Alive, etc that we’re talking about here are whole albums with additional b-sides and mixes. That’s a world of difference when it comes to content. Actually buying that Erasure set to me is a real headscratcher, one probably has most of this already and if you don’t and this is your point of entry…..???? It’s like saying, well I like their music so much I’m going to drop $100 on a box set but ha ha, you know I’ve never bought anything by them before…..funny that.

    Like

    Reply
  6. Echorich says:
    February 13, 2019 at 2:41 pm

    For a band I love to excess, I have never felt the need to have every demo and every slightly different mix.
    I am a flag waver for both How Men Are – one of my favorite Fairlight albums and Pleasure One – Where H17 strive for Parisian sophistication and find some wonderful sounds on that journey. This may get me in some “trouble” – that one was for you Monk, but I think of Pleasure One as the album Spandau Ballet could have made after Parade, avoiding the ill fated Barricades. It’s an easy, urbane album of Pop.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. dhrichards says:
    February 14, 2019 at 2:06 pm

    Teddy Bear Duke and Psycho really was (for me) the band scraping the bottom of the barrel. But there is at least one of their all time best songs on there- “Responsibility.”

    For me I would like to have seen some sort of reproduction of the Arista US debut- the songs are all there some place, but for me that will always be the “best” Heaven 17 album, mainly because it is the first thing I heard by them.

    Like

    Reply
    • postpunkmonk says:
      February 14, 2019 at 2:21 pm

      dhrichards – One man’s meat is another’s tofu, I guess. For a long time “Teddybear” was my 3rd favorite H17 album. It’s “Pleasure One” that left no impression at all on me. I’m surprised that some low key reissue label out there hasn’t made a move on the “Heaven 17 ” compilation yet. Doesn’t that seem like a natural for Wounded Bird? I don’t know how they continue to eke out releases, but they seem to do it.

      Like

      Reply
  8. Jordan says:
    February 14, 2019 at 8:19 pm

    After Let Me Go 12” I lost interest. These box sets that now include demos seems to be the new thing. Much like the New Order Movement box. Of interest to true fans I guess. I always thought demos were left off because that is what a demo is. Price seems fair. Wonder how much H17 see of this since it’s all Virgin.

    Of interest is a cover version of H17 Facist Groove by LCD Soundsystem that just came out.

    Like

    Reply
  9. chasinvictoria says:
    February 21, 2019 at 9:03 pm

    “Train” is actually one of my absolute favourite* H17 tracks. I’ve enjoyed much of what they’ve put out fairly uncritically over the years, though I acknowledge the “Fairlight slump” that hit a lot of bands hard at that time. Like many of those bands, there were too many remixes that weren’t different enough, but when you have songs as good as most of their hits at least the base music bed for them is worthwhile.

    Demos can sometimes be interesting because they can show the development of the final song, and of course sometimes the demo caused a radical rethink of the whole song core to what we ended up with, so for the most part I enjoy demos. The main thing I’m disappointed in with this new set is that a) the band didn’t check with the Monk first to see what they might have overlooked, b) probably at least one disc too many of “fortified” material, and c) that printed supplement is way too short.

    I fully expect to get this in due course, but I’m still waiting on the “forthcoming new album” the band teased songs from three years ago …

    Like

    Reply
  10. chasinvictoria says:
    February 21, 2019 at 9:03 pm

    * “Favourite” here means “somewhere within my top 25 depending on my mood at that moment.”

    Like

    Reply
  11. slur says:
    March 5, 2019 at 6:04 am

    Well, thanks for that article. It lead me to returning to H17 and buying some missing stuff right ahead (like the ‘Let Me Go’ Remixes on the 1992 US ‘Temptation’ Release) and I even try to get some understanding for the turn they took with Teddy Bear (…) once again.
    What I’d really like to know is why they dropped the BEF Production Moniker for ‘Pleasure One’ and it’s follow up.
    I still recall they even announced a ‘Pleasure Two’ Album in an interview around that time to follow shortly because they had such a ‘creative flow going’ but nothing ever turned up.
    Well anyway, at least ‘Contenders’ and ‘Trouble’ were great singles back then.

    Like

    Reply
  12. Moribund says:
    June 18, 2019 at 11:06 pm

    I think the version of Are Everything on the box set IS the “specially fortified dance mix” and it’s the 7″ edit that’s missing?

    Like

    Reply
    • postpunkmonk says:
      June 19, 2019 at 6:00 am

      Moribund – Welcome to the comments! Interesting thought, but the box is still long months out for me. I don’t have that budget this year, and I kind of wait these days for them to work out all of the errors that inevitably crop up. Especially when Edsel are responsible.

      Like

      Reply
  13. negative1ne says:
    January 12, 2020 at 6:00 pm

    Hi Mr. Monk,

    Well part 2 of the boxset is coming. Whether it will be better, more
    complete, or even right is remaining to be seen. I think it will have
    most but not all of the missing mixes, and tracks. Looking forward
    to the unreleased album.

    “This deluxe 9 CD set contains three studio albums (Bigger Than America, Before After, Naked as Advertised), a previously unreleased album (Space Age Space Music), The remix albums Retox/Detox, the concert album How Live Is, plus 48 bonus tracks (remixes, tribute tracks, non-album singles) and an illustrated 28 page 12×12 book with credits and annotation based on brand new interviews with the band. In 1988, after their fifth album for the Virgin label, Martyn Ware, Ian Craig Marsh and Glenn Gregory decided to rest Heaven 17. In 1996, after various British Electric Foundation and individual projects, the ensemble re-grouped to record the first album in this set, “Bigger Than America”. The album featured two singles “Designing Heaven” And “We Blame Love”, both of which would see many remixes released, and 1998’s 2CD release “Retox/Detox” Featured nothing but remixes. In 1998, Heaven 17 decided to play live for the first time, and a concert was recorded and released in 1999 as “How Live Is”. Around this time the band also recorded cover versions of songs by Madonna, U2 and Prince for cleopatra Records tribute albums. A brand new studio album, “Before After”, the last to feature Ian Craig Marsh, was released in 2005 and (aside from a cover version of “Don’t Fear The Reaper”) featured the singles “I’m Gonna Make You Fall In Love With Me” And “Hands Up To Heaven”, both of which attracted many remixes. In 2008 “Naked As Advertised – Versions 08” Featured new interpretations of Heaven 17 and Human League classics alongside a cover version of “Party Fears Two”. This fully-annotated set ends with the previously unreleased instrumental album “Space Age Space Music”. Recorded in 1998, the idea was to issue the album, and invite singers to record their own melody lines and lyrics. The concept was never realised….”

    Out March 20th 2020.

    later
    -1

    Like

    Reply
    • postpunkmonk says:
      January 13, 2020 at 9:43 am

      negative1ne – I’d be interested in seeing the full tracklist for this one. Their later period had only one album classic in it with “Bigger Than America.” I have most, but not all of the remixes from that and would appreciate all of them on CD. The orphaned album might be interesting. I’ve only heard bad things about “Retox/Detox” so I’ve ignored it. I have all of the other albums. I would also be interested to see if their last two [great] 12″ singles [“Pray” + “Unseen”] showed up in this. I wonder if they will ever finish that once-discussed latest album or if the DL only thing [“Not For Public Broadcast”] will be all that we ever get from that project. It would be a pity, since I thought the two singles found the band operating at a high level after years of spotty output. I never got over the lack of political bite at a time when we needed it badly [but not as badly as now, though] on “Before/After.” The only political statement there was the title/cover!

      Like

      Reply
      • dhrichards says:
        January 13, 2020 at 10:41 am

        Retox/Detox has some, uh, “interesting” remixes. Nice to have it in this boxset, but worth picking up for under 5$ otherwise.
        Kind of excited about this boxset, but it does feel a little like barrel scrapping if I am being honest. Of course, I have already ordered it from Amazon, so there is that.

        Like

        Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.