[…continued from last post]
While Face 2 replicated [in intent, if not execution] the B-side dub mixes of the “Fabrique” cassette B-side, the third disc here was about rounding up the seven and twelve inch single mixes. We had a little over an hour here of material and this time the disc was salted with Monkbait of the strongest stripe; a previously unreleased version of a song from “Fabrique.”
Fashiøn: Fabrique [Single Remixes] Face 3 – UK – CD [2021]
- Move On [Audio Extra]
- Streetplayer-Mechanik [Audio Extra]
- Love Shadow [Smokey Dialogue]
- Something In Your Picture [Motor Drive]
- Mutant Mechanik [7″ Mix]
- Love Shadow [7″ Mix]
- Alternative Playback [Full Frame]
- Let’s Play Dirty [Centrefold]
- Love Shadow [US 12″ Promo Mix]
- Something In Your Picture [Alternative Album Mix]
“Move On [Audio Extra]” was the pre-release twelve inch that was actually released in the holy year of 1981. I don’t think I had an awareness of this single at that time, but I wish I had! “Move On [Audio Extra]” was a steamroller with an “impeccable groove” that anticipated the ultimate Level 42 jazz-funk jam that would happen two years later with “Hot Water.” The mix was nothing radical. In fact, the LP cut was most likely an edit of the full length jam as used here. most of what constituted “Mutant Dance Move” in the previous disc. The extended buildup to the big drop. Minus the heavy dub effects used on “Mutant Dance Move.” In this the 12″ mix was decidedly definitive.
The slipstreaming motorik monster that was “Streetplayer-Mechanik [Audio Extra]” sounded like the exact same file as used on Face 2/track three, but the EQ applied to the track differed greatly here. Otherwise the two clicks in the first 30 seconds were identical. The mix was like the last one, a full length take from which the 3:47 LP track had been obviously hacked down to become. Whoever came up with the vocal hook “no one is unique – everything is mechan-ik” was a genius. I have not heard if it was Harris, Held, or a band member who suggested this one, but the whispered chant can play off the powerful synthet-ik rhythm all day long in my world. The dubbed out synth brass in the coda were like matching tire squeals to the Maserati piston-rhythm of the song.
Next came the first Fashiøn record I bought back in 1982. I had been smitten by the few airings of the “Love Shadow” video I’d seen on MTV and the 12″ mix was more sensual and luxuriant as it strove for the vibe of a Barry White track yet viewed through a darker, noir lens. Harris’ surgical funk guitar licks drew blood with every riff, and coupled with the dry Simmons drums and the rushing, organsmic synth riffs formed a recipe for hedonic overload. The 12″ mix was filled with a lot more Gina X presence as in the song’s second half,she traded lines with Harris as they dissected this doomed romance.
This half of the mix functioned as “Smokey Dialogue”on the last disc, but the mix was smooth and elegant here; in keeping with the original track and missing all of the bracing dub effects added to the mix to suggest the disorientation of breakup. The bass clarinet solo of got more time in the spotlight and the chillout coda of the bass line and the gossamer guitar solos overdubbed in dubspace were elegant in the extreme.
Next: …Playing Dirty
Post-Punk Monk 