REVO | US | CD-R | 2020 | REVO 031A
Claudia Brücken: Comprehension Vol. 1 – US – CD-R [2020]
- Dr. Mabuse [Razormaid remix]
- When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time
- Snobbery + Decay [Moonlighting Mix I]
- When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time [12” ver.]
- I Can’t Escape From You [Razormaid remix]
- Snobbery + Decay [Moonlighting Mix II]
- Poison [single remix]
- Absolut[e] [Razormaid remix]
- Snobbery + Decay [Instant 1]
- Kiss Like Ether [Razormaid remix]
- Snobbery + Decay [Instant 2]
- I’ll Find A Way [Andrew Brix Variable Club remix]
- Fanatic [The Nail In My Soul] [Razormaid remix]
Waaaaay back in 2004, I made a Claudia Brücken CD that compiled most of the remixes from her then last album; 1991’s “Love: And A Million Other Things.” It had the hard to source “Bastille Mix” of “Absolut[e]” and a pair of Razormaid mixes that were in house. “Fanatic [The Nail In My Soul]” and “I Can’t Escape From You.” It did the job it needed to do, but six years hence, Cherry Red came out with the ideal DLX RM of “Love: And A Million Other Things” that wrapped up everything in a nice, tidy bow. There was not much reason for this comp to have a continued existence…unless one looked at the other music I’d gotten from Ms. Brücken since 2004 that had no central home as of yet.
I decided to revisit the comp earlier this year and kick it into the future with a new compilation of loose tracks that needed a home for easy listening. I’d gotten a lot more Razormaid mixes since then. I stumbled onto the issue with “Dr. Mabuse” and this needed a home! I managed to render the track serviceable thanks to Click-Repair. I had put the 7″/12″ of the single that Brücken had recorded with Glenn Gregory on the Heaven 17 BSOG I’d [re]made in 2009, so it made sense to also deposit the vinyl-only tracks here.
One of the major items I’d bought in the ‘noughts was the White label promo 12″ of “Snobbery + Decay” from Act with four remixes that weren’t included in the awe-inspiring 3xCD BSOG of “Act’s “Laughter, Tears + Rage – The Anthology.” The mostly instrumental mixes were minor mixes, heavy on the Latin percussion, but still pretty scarce on the ground. I spread these into the disc; avoiding the problem of “remix clumping.”
I was checking the Discogs.com database on Claudia Brücken; making sure I didn’t miss anything that didn’t immediately come to mind, and was severely embarrassed to find that I had a Brücken “buried treasure” in my collection for at least 30 years!!! I really love collecting Claudia Brücken. I have many pressings of “Snobbery + Decay” to my name. To wit:
ZTT | UK | 7″ | 1987 | ZTAS 28
The 7″ single.
ZTT | UK | 12″ | 1987 | 12ZTAS 28
The 12″ single.
ZTT | UK | 12″ | 1987 | 12 ZACT 28
The gatefold 12″ single.
ZTT | UK | 12″ | 1987 | 12 XACT 28
The remix 12″ [with poster].
ZTT | UK Promo | 12″ | 1987 | CT 01
The white label promo remixes.
ZTT | UK | CD5″ | 1987 | CID 28
The holy CD-5 version.
I’ve had the CD-5 since it came out. Around 1990 I bought all of the UK commercial 12″/7″ variations from a catalog. Because. I never played the vinyl remixes more than once upon buying them. I was waiting to make my own CD which never happened due to the Anthology box of the album which collected 95% of these mixes. I never played the B-side of “Poison” from anything but the CD-5/album CD. The album had a version of “Poison” identical to what was on the CD-5. 12 XACT 28 had a labelled remix of the B-side, called “Strong Poison.” I played that a few times.
What I didn’t know until 2020 was that the other 12″ records had a unique mix of “Poison” which I now duly digitized and included in this compilation. My embarrassment levels were off the map for this one. Again, when I play records [which isn’t often, it’s true…], I make sure to digitize each track on the server in at least raw form so that I don’t miss anything. But I had not played these tracks yet and thus was in the dark.
I had a German white label 12″ of “I’ll Find A Way” with three mixes by The Brain, which reunited Claudia and Michael Mertens with The Brain. Two of the mixes were trance mixes, but the Andrew Brix Variable Club Mix was more my style, and it found a berth here. I had also originally included the very trancy “Jam El Mar” mix, but a late in the game realization that I had another Razormaid remix to include motivated me into shaking up the track listing late in the game.
In 2016, I’d bought this record, and had not played it since buying therefore it had not imprinted itself in my mind. The knowledge of which eventually jolted my senses into swapping out the 11 minute trance mix for the 7″ of “When Your Heart Runs Out Of Time” and this Razormaid remix of “Kiss Like Ether,” One of my all time favorite Brücken songs. I had almost forgotten that I had the “Absolut[e]” Razormaid mix up front in this revisit, but to forget this was just highly embarrassing!
Claudia Brücken hosted many great archival photos of her through the years
My next step was to take the cover from ca. 2004 1-sided insert to how I like to roll these days. Full booklets and liner notes are de riguer! Ms. Brücken hosted a plethora of excellent promo shots [many not used but very cool] on her website. So these were a welcome sight. With the lineup changing several times as I worked my way through re-compiling this one, I had to re-do the liner notes each time, but at last it’s finished!
I still used the water motif but offset it with a promo shot intended for the “Fanatic” single that never got a release
The back insert was pretty perfunctory from 2004. Something I threw together in 10 minutes with the single sleeves on it. I used the great B+W shots for the planned but never made sleeve for “Fanatic [The Nail In My Soul],” which only got a french promo 7″ release in a generic Island sleeve. These were too good not to use with Ms. Brücken sporting a triangular eye patch; looking very bauhaus. So vVolume 1 of “Comprehension” is done. As I get more Brücken rarities, I can just craft more volumes until such time as I may compile them all into a box. I have enough loose tracks and DLs of digital only-music for at least another two right now.
– 30 –
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Post-Punk Monk 
If you’re still collecting all the minutea there’s some mixes that she’s done with Blank & Jones that you are able to buy ala carte whether on Amazon or iTunes.
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Tim – Which I bought years ago. The kind of thing that DL is best for! About a dozen years ago I hit lots of Brücken action at Blank + Jones/Andy Bell land.
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Wow-what a great selection of CB oddities.
I dont have anything particularly rare or special,though I treasure my 12″ gatefold of ‘S&D’-I never knew there were so many variants.
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Gavin – It was especially gratifying to hear an extended remix of “Fanatic;” a real lost hope! I ran across that Gridlock! CD in a Pittsburgh store called “The Collector’s 12 Inch.” Surely the best name for a record store ever? I’ll never forget that visit as I acquired a third of my Associates collection in one fell swoop there! I had gotten “Popera” about 18 months earlier and was smitten, hard, with the band but the records simply weren’t in Central Florida. And…weren’t we discussing Ms. Brücken?
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You’re a bit of a Brücken record on our Claudia … yuk yuk … but not only is it wonderful to see an enduring fanship more fully explored, but it is equally great to know that there are more rarities and b-sides from this great talent to hear and enjoy for the first time! That ZTT 7″ may be one of the best covers to ever match a song title!
Just what the world needs in these troubled times: more COMPREHENSION!
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chasinvictoria – Sometimes…there’s nothing to comprehend!
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There is no song that sums up the 80s better than Snobbery And Decay.
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Hi
Am I missing a way to hear these, or is it just a review?
Propaganda – one of me favourite bands always thought Claudia’s voice suited that kind of music
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Peter Lewis – Welcome to the comments! It’s a review of one of my personal CD-R projects. My hobby is making the CDs I want that don’t actually exist…and then I write about it. Claudia has been a favorite vocalist since 1985. Waiting out the 90s when she was raising her daughter was touch, but she’s done more after her child had grown, thank goodness.
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Hi, I came over from myvinyldreams. Is there a way for me to actually get hold of this?
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Grbage Colle – Welcome to the comments! Other than buying the same records/discs that I have and ripping it yourself? Not really. We don’t share files here. It’s not our thing. This blog is about the experience of collecting music and talking about making our occasional CD-R projects…like this one.
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is there a chance you would kindly donate this through myvinyldreams or so?
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Grbabe Colle – Though I really like talking about the material posted at myvinyldreams, and do it all of the time, I don’t distribute music online. Sorry.
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Hello there. It seems we have a similar hobby and a similar taste in music. I love Claudia Brucken and right now I decided to arrange my Claudia/Propaganda collection and design some cover art for some unofficial CDs. I don’t sell any of the CDs I make but I enjoy them a lot. Just when I thought I collected so to say everything, I saw in this blog post some stuff I don’t have. Claudia is one of those unique distinct voices I absolutely love, and her German accent adds an unique charm to her voice. I find some vinyl rips online, but I think it’s time to buy a turntable to afford some of the mixes I don’t have, the vinyls are not that expensive at all. Greetings and thank you for your blog, it’s worth reading!
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Hishten Hien – Welcome to the comments! If the records are inexpensive, then by all means it’s time for a turntable. Since the early 90s, the focus of my collecting has been on music that never jumped the digital divide. The records I want have never been cheaper, but it’s the postage from foreign countries that has skyrocketed, alas.
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I’d give my eye teeth for a decent copy of the Snobbery & Decay 12″ promo.
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alonewithstrangers – I was lucky enough to have gotten one of those about 17 years ago for somewhere in the neighborhood of $30. I’d have to check my records to be sure. I guess the will was not there to make a 4xCD set for “Anthology.”
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Slightly surprised it wasn’t included on some of the ‘Art Of The 12″ collections. Maybe a problem with the provenance somewhere?
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alonewithstrangers – I’m sure that is the case. Herbie For Mastermind might be DMC DJ and under some contract.
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