[…continued from last post]

Finally, Face 3 had one track which was only in this boxed set. “Something In Your Picture [Alternative Album Mix].” The mix had subtly differing balances and slightly different rhythms and synth touches. The backing vocals airbrushed into the song were used in different places in the mix as well. The one huge change in this version was the coda to the song which used a very different performance from Dave Harris on vocals. Instead of the [admittedly dazzling] multi-voice middle eight abstract vocal treatment as on the album mix, this one had Harris belting out a new verse in fortissimo. It proved to be a radically different emotional note to close the song out on instead of repeating the chorus.

Fabrique Global: MMXIX Extended Remixes Face 4– UK – CD [2021]

1. Dressed To Kill [Extended Remix] 6:36
2. Something In Your Picture [Extended Remix] 6:33
3. Do You Wanna Make Love [Extended Remix] 8:16
4. Love Shadow [Extended Remix] 6:25
5. Streetplayer [Extended Remix] 8:16
6. Move On [Extended Remix] 10:18
7. You Only Left Your Picture [Extended Remix) 4:48

Finally, I had been under the impression that the fourth disc, the “MMXIX” disc which had briefly surfaced in 2019 as a hard-to-get CD-R from Dave Harris and Zeus B. Held had been a live recording of the two gents revisiting the material decades later, but that was my misconception. Instead, the disc was Post-Modern remixes of seven of the ten “Fabrique” tracks. But in this case, done by the original artist and producer of the material. Making it a rarity in the Post-Modern remix world.

These re-works were also home to new overdubs my the artistes, making them halfway between remixes and new material. The name Fabrique Global was the name of a new partnership between Harris and Held, so we’ll see if they manage to create new music after the disruption of the pandemic. Hopefully, one day in the next few years we may have a full album of new material by these talents, but until then, there are these remixes to consider.

We now have an extended remix of “Dressed To Kill” that began with a completely new conga/drumstick percussion movement that ended with a synth drone before the familiar bass line came into the mix. Percussion loops and watery clavinet by Held led into a new mix of the classic tune at the two minute mark. The balances and EQ were different for this re-edit. The EQ was sharper and less bass-heavy until the coda, where the squealing tire foley effects were [thankfully] still present. The overall effect was not a disaster, yet it was not definitive, either. Like any Post-Modern remix, it had a lot of legacy to overcome and was not quite up to the task. That the ending was [again] faded instead of the cold bracing ending I prefer from the original version was a disappointment.

“Something In Your Picture” had new synth bleeps and blips in the intro, which was closer to the album mix of the track. All of this struck me as perfunctory and inessential. Not unlike the “Party Mix” overdubs on the B-52’s EP I never bothered buying. The multi-voice middle eight was fractalized even further and longer, which was the best thing that could have happened to it. It always struck me as the most dazzling moment in the song and more is better, though this mix had the overdubs in the intro to overcome.

The hip-hop beats and clavinet added to “Do You Wanna Make Love” were about as far as possible from the bedroom vibe of the original mix. This one eventually folded in the “Do You Wanna Make Love [at 5:00 A.M.]” rhythmic treatment for more dub hijinx. But the further away that this track got from the silk sheet seduction of the original LP version of this song, the less I liked. Eventually the shimmering synthgasm of the LP version got some love about halfway through. As did the new emphasis on the bass playing. I think that the clavinet overdubs might have worked but the mix here was too sprawling for me to ride it all the way.

“Love Shadow” was more of a re-edit of all of the various mixes out there. But the intro still had dope drop beats® that might have been better had so much of the original mix not already manifested. There sounded like new guitar from Harris figuring in there. I would have preferred a completely new version of they wanted to move in a hip hop direction with this one. The EQ was wildly divergent in a distractive way. The ending incorporated a remix of the heavy dub workout of “Smokey Dialogue.” As this stood, it lacked integrity for all of the stabs at invention. It was too much of a kitchen synch mix [up].

Next: …Wrap It Up, I’ll Take It