Razormaid Chapter Two: Edit Dump! – US – EP [clear vinyl] [1984]

1. Vicious Pink: Cccan’t You See [Razormaid mix] 7:59
2. Heaven 17: Sunset Now [Razormaid mix] 7:25
3. Visage: Love Glove [Razormaid mix] 8:43
4. Figures On A Beach: Breathless [Razormaid mix] 8:02

Sometimes it’s time for some new music to listen to and when you’re me, you have purchased hundreds of records over the last 35 years that suddenly, one day, you finally play! With my age, the notion is to do this more often but tell that to my schedule! This record was one bought during a visit to my favorite record store in North Carolina, Repo Record in Charlotte on my second visit there in 2017. I paid an eye-widening $6.00 for the goods and last weekend I found out just what it was all about.

Since these tracks all date from the Dawn of Razormaid™ what was happening here were the label’s re-edits of existing releases. In short order they would be getting access to masters for their remixes, and the sky would be the limit, but these were new mixes using only the actual commercial releases. This can be a humdrum affair in the wrong hands; loop porn of a low degree, but Razormaid had the chops to turn an existing song inside out on their re-edits to become a completely fresh affair, and really, wasn’t that the whole point?

The joy of this release was that it grouped together material from four groups that I collect! Offering maximum return on by $6.00. Once you have all of the commercial and promo materials from an artist you collect, the final frontier was the specialty DJ market, where spinners needing some “secret weapons” in their kit bag could play mixes of hot tracks that only got play on dancefloors. DJs had to subscribe to the service and couldn’t just walk into a Peaches and buy these mixes. Though, ironically, mixers Art Maharg and Joseph Watt eventually made mixes for the labels that were released commercially! Such was their reputation in the industry.

The “Ccan’t You See” remix began with a breakdown from later in the usual mixes of this club classic. I have lost track of how many different mixes of “Ccan’t You See” I have in my Record Cell, but this one is possibly the freshest as it zigs and zags to avoid the well-trod path of the song that the commercial mixes tend to hew closely to. Mixer Watt has combined elements of the English and French Extended Mix to make it bilingual; a Razormaid trope I’ve heard before with other artists who have a flair for French [Peter Godwin, I’m talking to you].

I always liked the “Love Glove single from Visage, but the UK 12″ was just an extended version with some vamping. The Razormaid was the definitive remix with the entire song re-ordered for a completely different arc. The buildup in the extended intro then led into the piano theme which was the heartbreaking melody and the song’s strong suit. Then the chorus theme came to the fore with the refrain of the song being the first time we heard Steve Strange in the mix. And the first verse we heard was a different one to the other mixes of the song. And all of it was allowed a spacious 8:43 to develop and sprawl. Luxury should not be moderated! Wasn’t that the whole point of 12” singles?

The “Breathless” remix was altogether longer and more relentless than the band’s own 5:46 remix from their pre-Sire indie period. I absolutely love the extended vamping with one beat of the expression vocal refrain inserted per bar until the whole sequence played out like a slow motion sequence in an action film. The middle eight still popped out impressively and I was struck by what a strong song this was with clever lyrics for what was song aimed at dance clubs. The multi-level references to the JEan-Luc Goddard film. A rare case of New Wave reconnecting with The New Wave!

The clear wax at least maintained pretty high energy throughout the playback. This was DJ vinyl that was definitelty not trashed, as is sometimes the case with club records bought second hand. The photo in the post is of my actual copy, so you can see where there were stickers applied by the DJ that are now missing. The B-side of the record, had the name of Figures On A Beach’s bane circled in thick black sharpie with “RMX” written next to it. So the DJ must have leaned on the FOAB cut, but there nothing buy music and mixes here to love. Now I need to record the other Razormaid issues I have to the hard drive. I’m not getting any younger.

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