I can’t say why 2024 was suddenly a hotbed of Visage release activity. I’m simply glad that it happened! The 10th anniversary of Steve Strange’s death isn’t until Februrary 12th of 2025; still six weeks out. But October/November of 2024 has seen a new live album from the 2013 tour and the 2014 Synthosymphonic show on the silver disc. At the time of those album being announced, we also heard rumors of the lead off single that was planned for the “Demons To Diamonds” album prior to Steve’s death finally getting a release. But facts were hiding in the shadows and life being what it is, I moved on. Happy that I ordered the two CDs so the third leg of the 2024 Visage tripod passed me by. Until Sunday night when chatting with my friend Todd, who casually asked me if I’d heard the new “Before You Win” EP from Visage. He salted my wounds [in the nicest way possible] by calling it “over the top amazing.”

Within seconds I had bought and was downloading that digital EP onto my personal device and was passing the happy news on to my other friends. Who followed suit! The EP featured the “John Bryan Widescreen Version” of the A-side as well as other B-sides, and mixes. Having heard the “Never Enough” [John Bryan Widescreen Version]” back in 2013, I completely understood the nature of “over the top amazing” and Visage remixes. “Never Enough” is my top remix of the 2010-2019 decade. How would the latest salvo from team Visage shape up?

Visage: Before You Win EP – UK – DL [2024]

1. Before You Win (John Bryan Widescreen Version) 8:34
2. Before You Win (John Bryan Widescreen Instrumental) 8:34
3. The New Age Of Electronic Music 2:12
4. The New Age Of Electronic Music (Instrumental) 2:12
5. Before You Win (Paragon Cause Remix) 4:03

On the last John Bryan Widescreen Version for Visage, the secret weapon was sheer orchestral power united with the band’s usual fiery dance rock. This was something else entirely. It began with a cavernous, tribal drum pattern new to the song. Truth be told, it bore a resemblance to the big beat in Toto Coelo’s “I Eat Cannibals!” Just placed into a much better song. Then Robin Simon’s phased guitar lick gave us a hint of familiarity in the all-new, all-exciting intro buildup. Steve Barnacle’s bass line also got the spotlight in this taut extended intro, with drum fills crashing around the guitars as the rhythm guitar riff rose in the mix like a cobra.

The synths didn’t begin to creep into the mix until after the one minute mark. You want widescreen? You’ve got it! It was nearly 90 seconds in before the familiarity of the song began to coalesce into the more familiar melody of “Before You Win.” And then came the subtle orchestral enhancement this round with strings buttressing the melody. Then, after a synth howl, there was a drop where the hi-hat and Barnacle’s bass got a spotlight dance for a few bars as Steve Strange began singing the song over the now minimal music bed as a drum fill pulled the synths finally into the mix as the song was now in full flower as the various musical threads converged.

Then at the 5:30 point we got served a completely new third movement of the track as a rushing synthesizer wind heralded a Moroderesque Europulse reverberating in a hall of sonic mirrors. With strings! Then came unexpected soundbites of Strange breaking down about what the implications of Visage name ultimately stood for. Then the sequencers dropped out, leaving the strings to carry the song’s climax. And then we were swept back into the familiar coda of the song. At the point that Strange sang the title the final time, then we had echoes of the syncopated intro with the rhythm guitar and that tribal drum pattern receding into the horizon.

The conceit of the mix was sufficient for the instrumental version to immediately follow to no complaints from this quarter. Next came the non-LP-B-side, “The New Age Of Electronic Music.” As it turned out, this was an extraction of the third movement to the A-side of the single! I suppose 10 years after Steve Strange had died, that this was as much as one could hope for in a B-side.

Shorn of the coda that followed on the long mix it was a tad abrupt as a stand alone piece, but when I listen to it I now am now imagining a widescreen version of this excerpt carried into a brand new single. Stranger things have happened. Since the Steve Strange sound bits were the entirety of the vocal, the instrumental version is overkill, unless bedroom remixers out there were straining at the bit to do exactly what I just suggested.

Finally, we ended up with the Paragon Cause Remix of “Before You Win.” I’d not previously heard of the Canadian electronic duo but I’m paying attention now! The brief 4:03 mix was altogether rockier and more urgent than any other mixes of “Before You Win” with pulsating square wave synths and serrated guitar riffs impressively holding court. I was loving this mix with its fearlessly treading into riff rocker territory. This was Dance Rock with the emphasis on the Rock.

So what we had here was another gift that no-one expected from Team Visage. I’m guessing that the mixes are new since the song was reportedly finished after Steve’s death and the notion of releasing any singles was tabled up front all those years ago. How lucky we are that the Steve Strange Collective has seen fit to manifest the notion ten years later. Sure, I was hoping for yet one more Visage CD single, but the DL is still appreciated. It was a modest $2.99 in iTunes and worth way more. Once more John Bryan has staked a claim on the remix of the decade award. There’s five more years left for someone to try to better him if they want to win the Monastic loving cup!

I’ve been a huge Visage fan for 43 years now and as usual, the final flowering of the band still astounds me with its vitality. The canon of 21st century Visage releases are second to none in my eyes. All of the hands on deck gave fantastic efforts to the cause and have contributed to what’s a high-water mark for contemporary music managing to call back to the traditional values at their roots and honor them with growth and maturity.

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