Post-Punk Monk

[…continued from last post]

“Streetplayer” was a very hardy track, since it went under the remix knife here and laughed off all attempts to drive it off the rails with the new elements woven into its sturdy DNA. French sound bites kicked it off, appropriately enough. Then that bass line began; abetted by cavernous percussion effects and Bollywood beat/vocal samples. All within the first 30 seconds and the track managed to impose its essence through it all. New emphasis for the rhythm guitar also shone through the mix. then it began cooking with the essential groove of the track with the vocoded refrain.

New rhythms came and went in the middle of the track, which remained impervious to it all. The difference in the bass EQ at the 4:35 point where a maladroit edit occurred was the only loss of face thus far. The mix was five minutes over before Harris’ vocal manifested. At that point the song played out as normal.

“Move On” was a monster here at over ten minutes in length. Held had fun jamming with the intro rhythms looped and layered for as long as he wanted to into almost something else. Something as hypnotic as ever, but decidedly different. Ninety seconds in it clicked into place and the tease was over. At 4:38 it veered off into new zones of dub with squelchy synths and new beats filtering in, but with the spotlight going to the bass guitar. Then three minutes later it resurrected the slapback frenzy of “Mutant Dance Move” until the final fade, where the track broke down into chaos..

“You Only Left Your Picture” was the least affected cut here, with the mix balance and EQ altered to give the track a more ghostly presence. Heard as if through sheer curtains billowing in the wind. Not quite of this earth. The big phasing into the middle eight was almost carried through the entire track. It took something away from the big climax following the middle eight where the track was still phased in its shroud of psychedelia; robbing the climax of its emotional potency. And there was a split second glitch at 4:38 that jarred my ears.

For the last 20+ years I have been dreaming and scheming to make a box like this; devoted utterly to the best white funk album I’ve ever heard. To that end, I began buying every possible Fashiøn release I could obtain over 20 years ago, when a box like this first became a glimmer in my eye. I got the 12″ singles. Then the 7″ singles. Then the US promo 12″ singles. Then I began eyeing DJ pool mixes and further obscurities. Technically, the sole reason why this box beat my “Re-Fabricated” box was that I still have not gotten the Razormaid issue “Class-X Four” [RM-CX-4] with the track on it. Even now it’s still too pricey for online purchase. I generally tend to buy Razormaid discs in stores at somewhat bearable prices but then it’s down to the luck of the draw, and I need to act sooner than later on this issue. Finally, it was only several years back when I finally discovered the Dave Harris 1987 redux of “Love Shadow!!” Talk about a late in the game shocker.

Having absorbed the new box thoroughly over the last month of heavy listening, it’s a curious thing. The mastering itself sounded excellent. The album was always warm and analog sounding, even where the newly emergent digital technology poked its nose into the picture. That came down to the engineering and production footprint of Zeus B. held and his engineer Martin Hömberg. Their sonic footprint was to make of this album a luxuriant blend of oiled teakwood and black leather styling, with the occasional frisson of chromium to illuminate the darkness.

“Fabrique” really seemed to be more a part of the late 70s instead of the early 80s; an era that tended towards a somewhat brittle sound, owing to the taste for all things shiny and digital. Which is why I probably gravitate to this album so strongly. I have the 2001 Cherry Red reissue of the 1990 Arista CD of “The Height Of Fashion.” It sounded fine. We can see the waveform of the song “Move On” as shown below. There are peaks to the wave at 0 dB but most of the music rarely goes above -6 dB of peak.

This new box was been remastered but is thankfully not aboard the brickwall train. As shown below with the same track from the new box, there had been a light touch of compression to give the music a touch more impact. Note the volume levels of the intro which is no longer as timid as the older CD would have you hear. But not so much that detail is obliterated, and the dreaded ear fatigue sets in. Throughout the box the presence and detail offered up are the best that this music has ever sounded.

Do I think any of this has been mastered form vinyl? I don’t think so. The level of detail and presence to this music is too hot to be even a best of breed vinyl rip. Yet, there was a click at 1:22 into the track “Alternative Playback [Full Frame].” Could that point to vinyl provenance? Perhaps. The wave transient looks like a typical vinyl pop, but for any of this music to be vinyl rips, I’m just not hearing the telltale signs. One: it sounds too good for that. There’s simply too much power and detail reaching my ear. Two: while I would say that NR has been used for tape hiss [there’s nothing here to speak of], it has not been used for surface noise reduction.

I do this all the time. I know the tradeoffs you pay for that sort of bargain. NR works by interpolating both in and out of phase information to target the noise and leaves telltale fingerprints at low sound levels; always on a fadeout. When I use NR, I might seek to face a track a second [or two] early to avoid these artifacts manifesting [that is to say, cheating]. I’m hearing none of that tomfoolery happening here. Three: the fact that there’s a new, previously unreleased version of “Something In Your Picture” on disc three means that it had to come from a master tape. No way could it be from an acetate. And if the production had access to that, then it follows that all of this was from a master tape. As for that stray click, that could be caused by static on the master, though I wish that it had been easily attended to during the mastering phase. Alas…

That was a minor hiccup for me. As was the appearance of “Streetplayer-Mechanik [Audio Extra]” instead of “Mutant Mix Mechanik” was the kind of error that always happens when mastering a set like this. I know that from bitter experience. But in my case, I can always fix it and burn a new CD, even as costly as MAM-A archival discs are. At the very least, “Mutant Mix Mechanik” was also on this disc I had, albeit under the name “Street Mechanik.” But that doesn’t help those without the earlier disc. So caveat emptor. As I said early on, for me the biggest nagfactor in this set was the decision to fade “Dressed To Kill [Double Dub]” instead of letting it end on tthe magnificent cold ending as it always had. The presence of almost imperceptibly slight cross fades between some of the tracks on Face 3 was a slight curiosity, but nowhere near a buzzkill. I sort of like having an almost imperceptible flow to it all even though I consider boxes of music like this to be reference objects. The fact that it was used randomly between some tracks and not others was a head-scratcher.

I suppose that the big splash here was the MMXIX disc that was Face 4. This constituted the first “new” material from this project. Apart from the “Something In Your Picture [Alternative Album Mix].” My misunderstanding up front was that it was a “live” CD from a one-off gig that Harris + Held had in 2019, but maybe that would have been more interesting. These were just post-modern remixes of the “Fabrique” tracks. Some decent, but others perfunctory. While I was happy to have this material added to this box on a glass mastered CD since I had missed the 100 CD-R copies sold prior to this box, I was also happy not to have spent the cash on the hard to get CD-R. Harris + Held have said that they intend to make new music going forward as Fabrique Global, and that will hopefully prove to be of greater interest to me. I know that I’m a big enough fan of Held to buy anything with his name on it.

The bottom line for me was that “Fabrique De Luxe” was not perfect, but it is the best there will probably ever be for this album. And Sweet Mother McCree it was actually on CDs! Having dropped three figures on this matte black fetish object for fans of “Fabrique” was invariably a huge buzz for me. I was all prepared to make my version of this box [and may yet do that, having invested considerably thus far] but once I heard from commenter brynstar that this was in the works [four years ago], I awaited the finished project patiently. We know how much time it takes for a project of this scope. Especially since it is “real” one not one of my personal indulgences. Hell, my own projects can take even longer! The last time I checked, I started buying what I needed for my own Fashiøn project 20 years ago.

If you are asking yourself “should I buy this” I can only say that if the idea of a matte black flight case CD boxed set of god [BSOG] with precision cut foam inserts and a Monastically packaged set of four CDs with everything that Arista released for this album campaign quickened your pulse, then you are in the target audience, and should buy. Two 7″ mixes are not here, but “Mutant Move” 7″ was simply a shorter edit of “Mutant Dance Move.” “Let’s Play Dirty” was an edit of “Let’s Play Dirty [Centrefold]” with a few bars here and there clipped from the mix. I can live with just the long, luxuriant mix. The most crucial 7″ mix was definitely here for “Love Shadow.”

But even if you are rolling your eyes at the notion of $112 [plus not insubstantial shipping from the UK] the market has spoken and it is now possible to buy the four CDs ala carte! The single CDs are £12.00/$15.00 per disc [though in the US Face 2 [“Fabrique Cassette Remixes”] is $16.00. That brings the costs down considerably. Any single CD signed by Dave Harris is $35.00 per disc. At the bare minimum, even budget conscious Fashiøn fanatics need the first three discs here! I was happy to get the Full Monty since every Fashiøn record I have bought [apart from the “Height Of Fashiøn” CD] was a used record, and after all of these years in awe of this achievement, I am more than down with sending $112 where it will [finally] benefit the artist. Goodness knows, that this music has certainly benefited me in the last 40 years!

Because ultimately, we are talking [a lot] about an album and its attendant singles that struck a place in the continuum between godlike middle-period JAPAN and the jamming Brit-Funk achievement of Level 42 at their very finest. To me this album really exists at the rarefied intersection that would exist between “Gentlemen Take Polaroids” and the always amazing “Hot Water.” Exquisite synth jazz chops courtesy of the band and producer Held, and the machine funk groove that could last for days that Harris’ songs explored magnificently. I only hope that Covid-19 hasn’t totally scuttled the notion of Harris and Held working on new music as Fabrique Global because I’m very curious to hear what these two might do 40 years later.

-30-

[…continued from last post]

The fourth single from “Fabrique” was a little scarce. While the first three had been issued worldwide, “Something In Your Picture” only seemed to get a release in the UK and Spain. The “Motor Drive” remix was the most radical overhaul of the singles on 12″ format. While the dubs could venture far afield from the A-side template, the 12″ A-sides largely stuck to longer takes/arrangements that had been edited down for eh album tracks. Not this time.

The “Motor Drive” had been extensively remixed by Zeus B. Held with a completely new rhythm track that was clattering and methodical. It was far more complex than the simple 4/4 pulse on the album track. Harris’ backing vocals sounded like a sampling keyboard was processing them though there was no credit for such in the extensive technical credits. Believe me; if there had been a Fairlight [or competitor] on the album we would have known about it. The 12″ arrangement was more dreamy and psychedelic than the album track. The dubby movement before the coda had a nice breakdown of the call and response vocals while foregoing the complex multi-voice arrangement that was so arresting in the LP track [and even the 7″ B-side “Alternative Playback [Half Frame]”].

There was a shocking brief segue to the next track that was only present here. All of these A/B sides were separate entities on vinyl, but not necessarily here. There was about 1-2 seconds of cross-fade into the next track, “Mutant Mechanik 7″ Mix.” This was a brief, but furious dub of “Streetplayer-Mechanik” with emphasis on the rhythm guitar and popping bass lines. With the dubbed out synth brass lines dancing among the big beat Simmons drums.

The much more direct “Love Shadow” 7″ mix then next appeared with the briefest of scene settings in its twelve second intro. The track was only 17 seconds shorter than the album track but seemed to be even briefer. At the end of this cut was another 1-2 second segue into the heavy extended dub mix of “Alternative Playback [Full Frame.]” This radical re-imaging of “Something In Your Picture” was all down to the dubbed out drums with the other primary emphasis down to the bass playing [never a sin to these ears]. There were still strategic jets of synth washes bled into the mix at odd angles, perpendicular to the drums.

Played adjacent to the album source track and there’s precious little crossover. Snatches of the processed backing vocal only appeared at the five plus minute mark as the ferocious bass riffs got some slapback love in the coda. The serpentine fade on the bass and cymbal rim hits ended things on a jazz note as the track ended. While there had been occasional clicks that barely registered here and there, this track had a clear transient click that could not have been master tape static at the 1:21 mark in playback. Thus the vinyl provenance of at least some of these tracks was indicated. I wish they’d consulted me first. Removing noise of that variety by hand is a Monastic specialty. I’d have repaired it gratis. The annoying thing was for vinyl mastering, this track sounded exceptionally good! There were no destructive Noise Reduction artifacts anywhere. The actual mastering of this music was excellent. I’ve played every track’s fade in the headphones at high volume and none of the telltale signs manifested. Which made that microskip all the more tragic.

Next came the one non-LP B-side to the album campaign; the ferociously cooking “Let’s Play Dirty [Centrefold]” extended version. A sequencer loop set the driving pace for the slamming beat and taut guitars to formulate an astonishing groove here. The vibe was still high tech, but streamlined. This felt like the band playing with a minimum of overdubs.

You don’t have to tell me that you love me

I just want to feel your weight above me [oh yeah]

Let’s play dirty…

Let’s Play Dirty

This was one of the all time great B-sides, but it really had a smoking hot vibe at odds with the chilled funk of the rest of the album so I can [grudgingly] see why it was set aside for B-side status. I have to wonder if this was from the “Fabrique” sessions of was from a later session when the “Love Shadow” single was being prepared. I would have loved to have heard a next album from this lineup that had this fire. The 7:40 of the song simply flies by.

The next track was a rarity that I had on my racks for years without knowing that the US edition [promo only] of “Love Shadow” featured a vastly different mix of the track for US clubs. Again, the last 1-2 seconds of the preceding track and this one were [barely] cross faded. The difference is apparent immediately when the slamming, somewhat aggressive beat made this mix of the song sound closer to what Cabaret Voltaire might be doing in a year’s time. The sensual pillow talk vibe of the UK mix was completely replaced. This sounded almost proto-industrial!

The guitar was emphasized together with the drums. The pizzicato string patch has been mixed into oblivion. The pacing of the track was also altered with the middle eight with Gina Kikoine intact, but the second half of the song dispensed with 90% of the spoken word give and take between Harris and Kikoine; reducing the latter to a cameo on the second half of the track. Then came what sounded like the point of the coda fade which circled back to repeat the chorus to fade. A very different “Love Shadow.” Not the ultimate
Love Shadow” by a long shot. The 12″ [in my Record Cell] had no remix credits on it, but I can’t believe that it’s the handiwork of Zeus B. Held and not some anonymous Arista US personnel.

Next: …Buried Treasure

[…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]

1. Move On [Audio Extra]
2. Streetplayer-Mechanik [Audio Extra]
3. Love Shadow [Smokey Dialogue]
4. Something In Your Picture [Motor Drive]
5. Mutant Mechanik [7″ Mix]
6. Love Shadow [7″ Mix]
7. Alternative Playback [Full Frame]
8. Let’s Play Dirty [Centrefold]
9. Love Shadow [US 12″ Promo Mix]
10. 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

[…continued from last post]

It was track three of Face 2 [“Fabrique” cassette remixes] that an error manifests in this box. It lists a track called “Mutant Mix Mechanik.” That was a B-side dub mix from the “Streetplayer-Mechanik” 12″ being 7:13 in length. The third track on the cassette was called “Street Mechanik” as it was also called on the “Height Of Fashiøn” compilation. All of these instances were the same dub track. Except on Face 2 of this box. In this case, the 12″ A-side of “Streetplayer-Mechanik [Audio Extra],” which is an 8:23 vocal mix, has been placed in the flow of tracks by mistake. It will also be the second track on Face 3 of this box; albeit in a very different EQ treatment.

So that means that the box was fallible. It’s not surprising as most of them are. By comparison, there’s the typical Edsel Records Box that often comes with handfuls of error-prone discs in them. I make these sorts of boxes myself and can vouch for how difficult it is to keep the plot straight. Let’s leave the song until it’s turn comes on the next disc.

“Dressed To Kill [Double Dub]” [as it was known on the cassette remixes] was such an immaculate stone groove that it’s now fantastically exciting to me, even though it was a brief dub mix of under three minutes. The same track was called “Dressed To Kill [mix]” on the 12″ B-side. The six note bass loop was naked up front for two bars before Harris’ insanely funky guitar kicked in. The bass loop gets stuck in my cranium for hours on end [like today] and was followed by the drums and the heavily processed vocal hook of “dressed to kill!” which joined the [very intense] party. Then synth stabs and the squealing tires [in dub!] of the LP mix got much more of an airing here. The bass riff, run through a Mu-tron filter to end up sounding like a Chapman Stick, piled on at the end but the cascade of Simmons fills in dub and the cold vocal only ending that I loved so much from the 12″ B-side was inexplicably faded down her for the last 15 seconds of the song. Say whaaaaa?? As much as I’m mildly disappointed that the previous track was included in error twice instead of the correct dub mix of “Streetplayer-Mechanik,” it’s this factor, more than anything, that is my big disappointment about this set.

The brief “You Only Left Your Picture [Reggae Reprise]” at a little over a minute long, couldn’t help but to leave one hungry for more. It posited a Fashiøn that was a halfway point between the knockabout Post-Punk of the first album and funk of the second album incarnations of the band, minus the high technology, for a brief funky reggae party. “Alternative Playback [Half frame]” which was the 7″ B-side to “Something In Your Picture,” was also the same cut as “Something In Your Picture [Alternative Playback]” on the remix tape. It came right up front and delved deeply [in dub] into the phased, multi-harmony bridge breakdown, which had been extended far beyond the scanty tease of the two bar length it had been in the album track. Meanwhile the rhythm had been cut to a fraction of its original BPM for a heady, lurching psychedelia as imagined by Zeus B. Held as if possessed by Adrian Sherwood. The phased backing vocals got plenty of love here too. Tracks like this are why dub was invented.

I have once said that “if cocaine were music, this album would be the result.” Never more was that true then on the cut “White Stuff [The Unfinished].” A track that only appeared here in its 8:45 full length while manifesting in a 5:30 edit on the NME “Mighty Reel” tape and a 5:00 edit on the US promo “Love Shadow” 12″ single. What was a teasingly brief three minutes was expanded dramatically here in a version of almost three times that length. And this was no dub mix but what would have been an epic 12″ mix. The bass cut straight to the heart of the funk with only cymbal taps to tick like a stopwatch before the Simmons rolls and vocoders began the jam in earnest after a minute in buildup. A buildup almost twice as long as on the LP mix. The jamming had plenty of room to breathe here with running time being no object to the development of groove.

At almost five minutes in, the jam expanded with new rhythm guitar figures and keyboard solos, the latter likely at the hand of Zeus B. Held who co-wrote this track in the studio with Harris. Through it all, the rhythm section just kept moving like a steamroller of funk, coming down the boulevard slowly and methodically. Casually crushing cars left and right. When the middle eight finally happened instead of ending the keyboard solos really started taking off. Then at 6:30 the drop happened and only the relentless hammering of the synthetic drums coupled with the pulse-gated and phased synth chords began cruising at high altitude. Then drum fills and metallic synth bleeps and occasional guitar joined the clavinet for a dissolute breakdown following the song’s manic phase.

The final track was only on the remixed B-side of the “Fabrique” tape but was also included on “The Height Of Fashiøn” CD. “Do You Wanna Make Love [At 5:00 A.M.] was a clattering dub mix of a radical stripe. All of the spherical, orgasmic essence of the LP track was swapped out for phased, dubbed drum tracks and synths, often doubled with slapback echo. Only the guitar cut angular shapes through the barbituate murk, until at the 4:30 point the song’s spellbinding synth hook finally appeared briefly, before the phased middle eight. The only vocal throughout all of this was the ghostly remnant of the refrain “do you wanna make love” mixed into the track like a distant fog. Then it faded out on Harris’ solo at a very different 6:45. I’d still have to give the massive edge to the original track, though this was decidedly different.

Next: …»Face 3«

[…continued from last post]

Back in the early 80s, the Walkman® portable tape player was a very popular way to enjoy music [but not with me…that’s another story for another day]. Arista was working that pre-recorded tape action with some of its artists by including all of an album on side one of a tape with remixes filling out the second side. The Thompson Twins were a high profile example of this with their “Quick Step + Side Kicks” album but labelmates Fashiøn got there first, with “Fabrique.” Some of the remixes on the tape B-side were later issued as 12″ single bonus tracks, but more were unique to the tape. These cassette bonus tracks constitute Face 2 of this box.

Fashiøn: Fabrique [Cassette Remixes] Face 2 – UK – CD [2021]

1. Mutant Dance Move
2. Smokey Dialogue
3. Mutant Mix Mechanik
4. Dressed To Kill [Double Dub]
5. You Only Left Your Picture [Reggae Reprise]
6. Alternative Playback [Half Frame]
7. White Stuff [The Unfinished]
8. Do You Wanna Make Love [at 5.00 A.M.]

Fans familiar with the cassette version may see different titles used here and here’s the original track listing below as printed on the 1982 cassette. Don’t worry. I’ll explain everything as we go along.

“Mutant Dance Move” was the B-side to the “Move On” 12″ single. It was the same as the “Mutant Move” on the tape. This was a muscular dub mix that had a gradually ascending series of circular chords, punctuated by Simmons fills and reversed white noise percussion in the place of hi-hats. Through it all, vocalist Harris repeated the “move on, move on, move, on, move on…” lyric mantra until after three minutes, the synth singularity appeared and then the relentlessly chugging bass riff took the song into high gear.

Harris’ vocal on the first verse was heavily dosed with slapback echo that made it syncopate with basically everything else in the song! Then the bass solo was pushed into the spotlight as huge, clanging synth and drum elements were dropped into a huge dub space against the flat, dry drum track for several bars, before circling back to the circular energy that was the song’s raison d’être. The vocoded scatting in the outro coda was yet more badass posturing that was totally at home on this album. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“Smokey Dialogue” was the same as “Love Shadow [Smokey Dialogue]” as it was known on the tape as well as the “Height Of Fashiøn” CD, which featured “Fabrique” and 5/8 bonus cassette tracks. This was a dub mix of what was basically the second movement of the “Love Shadow” 12″ single version; which [confusingly] was also called “Love Shadow [Smokey Dialogue].” This track gave focus to the bass clarinet of Pete Willman and the taut, funky guitar of Dave Harris. It was a different stage upon which to spotlight the call and response vocals of Dave Harris duetting with Gina Kikoine [or Gina X, as she was billed].

Their give and take was based on the middle eight of the album version but was far more elaborate in painting a picture of the schism that had occurred. At the track’s halfway point, the vocals were gone for a deep dive into the dub pool with Syndrums drums coasting for days on subharmonic bass overload while clattering, metallic percussion and undulating waves of synth white noise jumped back and forth in the stereo spectrum. High frequency synth trills and drum machine loops eventually broke the track down into its chaotic and thrilling climax. The smoothest track on the album had been ripped apart and crudely stitched back together into a kind of Frankenfunk’s Monster for our pleasure and excitement.

Next: …Error In the system