Decadance II: 1992

Side 1 of a mixtape mockery, focusing on the 1990s and today in particular, 1992. It's also Dubhed post number 1,400, whatever that's worth.

 

1992 was a weird year in that, after a few years working and travelling, I decided to go back to college. I originally went to college straight from school, had a really crap time, dropped out half way through and vowed 'never again'. How fickle we human beings are, eh?

 

It was slightly better the second time around, although my outsider status was maintained by being older than the majority of my fellows, though I would hesitate to describe myself as a 'mature student'. Mature I most definitely was not. 

 

I wasn't even the oldest student there. That dubious honour was reserved for a forty-something woman in my English Literature class who frequently expressed her frustration at the juvenile antics of her peers.

 

I wouldn't say that I had the time of my life, but I enjoyed the classes, liked most of the people, fell in love with a girl, and got to make some horrendous fashion choices on a daily basis. Oh, and I had a part-time job so that I could afford to run a car and have a social life. Critical, considering that I was back home living with my parents out in the sticks.

 

Music-wise, I was out of sync with my contemporaries. The college jukebox was great, but invariably had Nirvana, Soundgarden or Pearl effing Jam on constant rotation. Whenever I got the opportunity, I would stick on Don't Fight It, Feel It by Primal Scream, the 7 minute Andrew Weatherall Scat Mix on the B-side, naturally, Denise Johnson's voice resounding around the room to general indifference. Philistines!

 

Today's eclectic selection reflects the times and my tastes. I was still leaning heavily into dance music (literally, on some club nights when I'd been at it for hours without a break) but I was still knocked for six by a new indie tune. I was just as inclined to listen to Pete Tong's Essential Selection as I was John Peel or Annie Nightingale's Request Show.

 

Opening song, the Kate Bush-sampling Something Good by Utah Saints is the only one from 1992's Top 40 best-selling UK singles, scraping in at #36. 

 

Another sacrilegious sample carries Messiah's Temple Of Dreams, it's shameless lift of This Mortal Coil's cover of Song To The Siren giving Elizabeth Fraser an unexpected (and uncredited) #20 hit in June 1992.

 

Less contentious is Orbital's use of Kirsty Hawkshaw's la la la's from Opus III's It's A Fine Day on the sublime Halcyon. The dictionary definition "denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy and peaceful" is in keeping with the tone of the tune. However, the song is dedicated to Phil and Paul Hartnoll's mother, who was addicted to the tranquilliser Halcion (Triazolam) for many years.

 

A couple of songs were technically contenders for the previous year. Lithium first appeared on Nirvana's gargantuan album Nevermind in 1991, but wasn't released as a single until the following July. 

 

Hit by The Sugarcubes was officially on sale as a single on 30th December 1991, though it's prophetic (optimistic?) title was fulfilled a couple of weeks later, in January 1992.

 

Whilst you are thankfully spared big hitters (is that a typo?) by Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, Jimmy Nail, Wet Wet Wet and Billy Ray Cyrus, a ridiculously big shortlist means that R.E.M., Beastie Boys, PJ Harvey, Suede and Neneh Cherry also failed to make the final dozen.

I had to find a place for Julian Cope, though. The Arch Drude released his magnum opus Jehovahkill in 1992, and lead/sole single Fear Loves This Place is as good a single as Julian's released at any point in his career. 

1992's MAW (Mandatory Andrew Weatherall) is Papua New Guinea by The Future Sound Of London, a ground breaking song in it's own right, transformed into an 11-minute aural odyssey by Mr. W. As with Finitribe last week, even the 3-minute edit featured here (found on the B-side of the 7" single) is epic.

 

Representing indie discos were a couple of absolute classics, the minute they burst onto the airwaves. Weirdo by The Charlatans, with it's juddering intro that sounded like the noise my car made, trying to get it started on a cold morning, remains one of my favourites by Tim and the band. 

 

As for The Auteurs, what better song than Showgirl as a statement of intent. How was this not a huge hit in 1992?!

 

Rounding things up, The Age Of Love released their eponymous single multiple times though it was another five years before it became a UK hit. 1992 however saw the debut of the superb remixes by Jam & Spoon, which for me remain the definitive versions of the song.

 

Bassheads burned briefly but brightly, and I thought they were great. A clutch of singles, an album and a handful of remixes and that was it. Back To The Old School is itself now old school, yet still gets the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. And when the beat kicks in... perfection.

More Nineties nonsense tomorrow. Who will win? Who will lose? And which Weatherall shall I choose?

1) Something Good (7-Inch): Utah Saints ft. Doctor Douglas
2) Weirdo (Album Version By Flood): The Charlatans
3) Hit (Album Version): The Sugarcubes
4) Showgirl (Single Version): The Auteurs
5) Back To The Old School (Edit): Bassheads

6) Temple Of Dreams (U.S. Edit By Messiah & Ralph P. Ruppert): Messiah

7) Halcyon (Edit): Orbital

8) Papua New Guinea (Andrew Weatherall Mix) (7" Edit): The Future Sound Of London

9) The Age Of Love (Jam & Spoon Radio Edit): The Age Of Love

10) Lithium (Album Version): Nirvana

11) Fear Loves This Place (Album Version): Julian Cope

12) Hallelujah (Leftfield Edit): Inner City

19th January 1992: Stick Around For Joy (#17): 3

19th March 1992: Weirdo EP (#19): 2

5th April 1992: Hallelujah '92 EP (#22): 12

24th May 1992: Papua New Guinea EP (#22): 8

31st May 1992: Back To The Old School EP (#12): 5

21st June 1992: Something Good EP (#4): 1

28th June 1992: Temple Of Dreams EP (#20): 6 

26th July 1992: Nevermind (#11): 10

27th July 1992: The Age Of Love EP (# n/a): 9

20th September 1992: Radiccio EP (#37): 7

18th October 1992: Jehovahkill (#42): 11

November 1992: Showgirl EP (# n/a): 4

Side One (46:09) (GD) (M)

East End Rise

The first and last time I posted a Renegade Soundwave selection was in November 2022, so it's well past time for a return to The Big Smoke for some sleazy beats and frayed rhymes.

Where to start? Both albums and their dub companions are essential purchases in my mind and the singles offer up a plethora of remixes, usually by RSW themseleves, that are all worth checking out.

So, here's another brief (under 45 minute) selection that dips in and out of all of them. You may need a shower after to wash the grime of the city off.

 

1) Space Gladiator (Vocal Remix) (1989)

2) Manphibian (1990)

3) On TV (Album Version) (1989)

4) Cocaine Sex (Bonus Porno Beats) (1987)

5) Probably A Robbery (7") (1990)

6) Positive I.D. (Radio Mix) (1995)

7) Thunder (Album Version) (1990)

8) The Man Who Wouldn't Let Wax Wane (Album Version) (1995)

9) Kray Twins (12" Version) (1987)

10) Brixton (Album Version) (1995)

11) Women Respond To Bass (Women Respond To The Terror Drums ft. Pascale Fuillée-Kendall) (1992)

 

1987: Cocaine Sex EP: 4 

1987: Kray Twins EP: 9

1989: Soundclash: 3

1989: Space Gladiator/The Phantom EP: 1 

1990: Probably A Robbery EP: 5 

1990: RSW In Dub: 7

1990: Thunder II EP: 2

1992: Women Respond To Bass EP: 11

1995: Howyoudoin?: 10

1995: Positive I.D. EP: 6

1995: The Next Chapter Of Dub: 8

East End Rise (43:47) (GD) (M)

You can find the previous RSW selection, I'm Checking Out Her Rhythms, right here.

What Power Do You Bring Back Here?

Side 1 of a cassette compilation recorded as a gift from my brother, sometime around March-April 1991. 

 

Some New Beat and some not-so-new beat, generally speaking. As mentioned when I posted Side 2 last year, two key albums for this mixtape are the compilations New Beat, Made In Belgium (1989) and The Third Mind (1990). I might go so far as to say that my brother was either getting bored or tired towards the end of this side and opted to lift the latter's closing two songs on Side 1 to complete his own Side 1 of this compilation. I don't have a copy of The Third Mind and haven't been able to source the Son Of Sam track St. Augustine Said online, so I've instead plumped for a previous 12" aside, which I think sits reasonably well with the music on either side.

The selection kicks off with Psychic TV with the (kind of title track) from their acid house album Towards The Infinite Beat (released with a remix companion titled Beyond The Infinite Beat). From there a brace of classic Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne remixes, followed by Paris Angels' finest moment (from the original 1990 12", not the subsequent major label remix and re-release).

 

I guess you could describe English Boy On The Loveranch as a 'supergroup in reverse', comprising Dave Ball, Jamie Fry and Nick Sanderson. Dave of course had found fame and notoriety with Soft Cell and would again with The Grid. Jamie and Nick later co-founded World Of Twist and Earl Brutus. English Boy On The Loveranch only released a couple of singles in 1987 and 1988, but they're both worth tracking down.

A couple of New Beat contributions from 101 and Moments Of Ecstasy, featuring Jos Borremans, Maurice Engelen, Nikkie Van Lierop and Oliver Adams, who also variously recorded as Praga Khan, Lords Of Acid, etc. I was bit unkind about the latter last time, but there's no denying New Beat's allure.

I know next to nothing about Faction but according to Discogs they appear to be the same Faction that backed Nico on her 1985 album Camera Obscura. A nice way to come down from the relentless beats that have preceded it. 

I've no idea how my brother crammed all of this onto one side of a C90, but this is more or less as he originally intended.

 

1) Infinite Beat: Psychic TV (1990)

2) Pro>Gen (Land Of Oz) (Remix By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne) (Album Edit): The Shamen (1990)

3) Human Nature (On The Mix By Paul Oakenfold & Steve Osborne) (12" Version): Gary Clail / On-U Sound System ft. Alan Pillay (1991)

4) All On You (Perfume) (12" Version): Paris Angels (1990)

5) Rock To The Beat (Original Mix) (Cover of Reese aka Kevin Saunderson): 101 (1989)

6) Sex Vigilante (Deadly Weapons Mix By Flood): English Boy On The Loveranch (1988)

7) You And Me (Edit By Maurice Engelen): Moments Of Ecstasy (1989)

8) One Thousand Beats Per Minute (Deejay's Edit): Son Of Sam (1987)

9) Noa Noa: Faction (1990)

Side One (47:58) (KF) (Mega) 

Side Two here

Freak Yourself Once Again

Side 1 of a Cabaret Voltaire cassette compilation, recorded 5th June 2003. 

I posted two sides of separate Cabaret Voltaire mixtapes in fairly quick succession (for me) in early 2022 and haven't revisited either of them since so here's my first attempt to make amends. 

 

Bad Self (Part 1) was originally the B-side of 1984 single James Brown and was one of the tracks from their years on the Virgin label that Cabaret Voltaire revisited and reworked for the 1992 album Technology. Despite the title, I don't think there ever was a Part 2.

 

Big Funk was one of four songs released on the Drinking Gasoline double 12" single in 1985 and one of two which were tacked on as bonus tracks for the CD edition of The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord. 

 

Here To Go was the second single from their eighth studio album, Code, released in 1987. Cabaret Voltaire had moved from Virgin to Parlophone and were shifting towards a more commercial - if not entirely radio-friendly - sound. Adrian Sherwood produced the album and a remix of Here To Go; the one featured here is by another remix/production/DJ legend, François Kevorkian.

 

Hypnotised saw Stephen Mallinder and Richard H. Kirk saw step fully into club culture, drafting in Fon Force to remix and Ten City to provide backing vocals. It provided Cabaret Voltaire with their biggest UK single to date - #66 in November 1989 - and although the subsequent two singles did slightly better - parent album Groovy, Laidback And Nasty didn't trouble the Top 100. Many saw this album as the Cabs going from innovating and inspiring to jumping on the bandwagon. Taken as itself, I think it's a good album and Hypnotised is a cracking single, in all it's various versions.

 

Tough then to place the song next to Sensoria, which is one of the examples of Mallinder and Kirk leading the way. The 12" mashes up the single with Do Right, another track from the Micro-Phonies album, and it really is about as good as Eighties club music could get. Always a popular choice when played at some of the alternative clubs I went to in the late Eighties and early Nineties and still holds up today.

 

The original cassette features the second of two remixes that John Robie made for 1983 single Yashar. I decided to tweak today's selection as featuring it would have meant the third appearance of that particular mix on this blog (albeit one accidentally as I should have included mix #1). In the early 2000s, Richard H. Kirk revisited and reworked several Cabaret Voltaire classics for 12" singles and promotion for various back catalogue compilations. Just Fascination and Nag Nag Nag got the remix treatment, as did Yashar. The latter came out as a 12" single on 9th June 2003, as few days after I'd recorded this very cassette. Along with remixes from The All Seeing I and Alter Ego, RHK delivered his own update, which I've included here.

 

The selection closes with one of my favourite tracks from 1983 album The Crackdown, which was pretty much my first exposure to Cabaret Voltaire, via my brother's copy on cassette. In a blip on their usual UK chart trajectory, the album crashed in at #31 in August 1983, managing a total of five weeks in the Top 100. 

 

Seven songs, spanning 1983 to 2003, revisited two decades on. Damn, that makes me feel old! 

1) Bad Self (Part 1) (Western Re-Work 1992 By Cabaret Voltaire) (1992)

2) Big Funk (Single Version By Cabaret Voltaire) (1985) 

3) Here To Go (Extended Mix By François Kevorkian) (1987)

4) Hypnotised (The Fon Force Mix By Mark Brydon & Robert Gordon) (ft. Ten City) (1990)

5) Sensoria (12" Remix By Cabaret Voltaire & John 'Tokes' Potoker) (1984)

6) Yashar (Man From Basra Rmx By Richard H. Kirk) (2003)

7) Animation (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire & Flood) (1983)

1983: The Crackdown: 7

1984: Sensoria EP: 5

1985: Drinking Gasoline EP: 2

1987: Here To Go EP: 3

1989: Hypnotised EP: 4

1992: Technology: Western Re-Works 1992: 1

2003: Yashar EP: 6

Side One (46:04) (KF) (Mega)

Side Two here

You can also find Side One of a previous Cabaret Voltaire mixtape here

I'm Checking Out Her Rhythms

Time for some Renegade Soundwave, their first selection and only fifth appearance on this blog in total (six if you count their remix of Pop Will Eat Itself).

This selection draws from various singles and album tracks from 1987 to 1995, most of the remixes by RSW themselves. Inevitably, there's an epic remix by Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns aka the mighty Sabres Of Paradise.

1) Renegade Soundwave (Basstube Shakin') (Remix By Renegade Soundwave & Mark 'Spike' Stent) (1994)

2) Last Freedom Fighter (Album Version By Renegade Soundwave, Steve Osborne & Ben Hillier) (1994)

3) Probably A Robbery (Extended Mix By Daniel Miller & Rico Conning) (1990)

4) Brixton (Sabres Of Paradise Mix By Andrew Weatherall, Jagz Kooner & Gary Burns) (1995)

5) Deadly (Album Version By Renegade Soundwave & Tim Davies) (1990)

6) Kray Twins (Dragon Bass Sound System Mix By Renegade Soundwave, Karl Bonnie & Paul Kendall) (1987)

7) Positive I.D. (Book Of Isaiah Mix By Gary Asquith & Julian Briottet) (1995)

8) Cocaine Sex (Sub-Aqua Overdrive) (Remix By Renegade Soundwave, Karl Bonnie, Paul Kendall & Rico Conning) (Original Version) (1987)

9) Biting My Nails (Bassnumb Chapter) (Remix By Renegade Soundwave & Flood) (1990)

1987: Cocaine Sex EP: 8

1987: Kray Twins EP: 6

1990: Biting My Nails EP: 9

1990: Probably A Robbery EP: 3

1990: RSW In Dub: 5

1994: Howyoudoin?: 2

1994: Renegade Soundwave EP: 1

1995: Brixton EP: 4

1995: Positive Dub Mixes EP: 7

I'm Checking Out Her Rhythms (48:23) (GD) (M)

Moving Violations

Celebrating Andy 'Fletch' Fletcher of Depeche Mode, 8th July 1961 to 26th May 2022.

 

Without this blog becoming a musical obituary, I couldn't let more sad news this week pass with no comment or tribute. Last August, I wrote about seeing Depeche Mode live in concert at the age of 15, the first gig I'd ever been to. 

I'm going to let the music pretty much speak for itself today. This selection features both sides of a mixtape that I compiled 20th October 1990. By no means the first Depeche Mode compilation cassette I did, this one features a slew of remixes by François Kevorkian, Flood, Daniel Miller, The Beatmasters, Phil Harding, Tim Simenon, The Beloved, as well as relatively rarer (at the time) US mixes by Joseph Watt, Bert Bevans and Robert Margouleff.

 

A number of these are vinyl rips, so apologies for the variable audio quality.

 

Thanks, Fletch, you did good.

 

Side One

1) Route 66 (Remixed By The Beatmasters) (Cover of Nat King Cole & The King Cole Trio) (1987)

2) Sea Of Sin (Sensoria) (Remix By François Kevorkian & Alan Friedman) (1990)

3) A Question Of Lust (Remix By Flood) (1986)

4) World In My Eyes (Mode To Joy) (Remix By The Beloved) (1990)

5) Fly On The Windscreen (Death Mix By Gareth Jones) (1985)

6) Enjoy The Silence (The Quad: Final Edit By Tim Simenon) (1990)

7) The Things You Said (Album Version) (1987)

8) Nothing (Album Version) (1987)

9) A Question Of Time (Remix By Phil Harding) (1986)

 

Side Two

1) Behind The Wheel (Beatmasters Mix) (1987)

2) But Not Tonight (U.S. Extended Mix By Robert Margouleff) (1986)

3) Pleasure, Little Treasure (Glitter Mix By Depeche Mode & Dave Bascombe) (1987)

4) Get The Balance Right! (Combination Mix By Daniel Miller & Depeche Mode) (Cold End) (1983)

5) Flexible (Pre-Deportation Mix By Bert Bevans) (1985)

6) (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me (12" Mix) (Edited By Joseph Watt) (1984)

7) Dangerous (Sensual Mix By Flood) (1989)

 

Side One (46:02) (KF) (Mega)

Side Two (45:38) (KF) (Mega)

Wise Up! Again

Side 1 of a mixtape, recorded between December 1991 and January 1992. When I posted Side 2 last August, I mentioned the use of a couple of tracks from Keeping The Faith: A Creation Dance Compilation and there's another here. I didn't buy either of the two 12" singles of Come Together by Primal Scream at the time, but the excellent Hypnotone remix opened Side 2 of Keeping The Faith and remains my second only to Andrew Weatherall's unassailable mix. 

 

The other reference point on this mixtape side is Renegade Soundwave's debut album Soundclash. Excellent though it is, I think the real reason two tracks appear here is that I had been lent a copy by my friend Stuart and ended up cramming songs onto various mixtapes before returning it. 

 

There's also a heavy Adrian Sherwood vibe on this side, with production and remix duties for Cabaret Voltaire, Gary Clail / On-U Sound System and Tackhead. The full length version of False Leader featured on the album The Emotional Hooligan, whilst this edit was a B-side of the Escape remix 12". The Tackhead remix of Dangerous Sex was edited to squeeze onto the cassette side, so I've done the same here to preserve the original running time.

 

A Certain Ratio's Martin Moscrop remixes opening instrumental Bendy, which initially appeared on the Intastella single People; my copy resurfaced on the limited edition "Intastella Meet Adamski" remix 12" of follow-up Century. This is my favourite version of the song.

 

Killing Joke's Youth remixes Pop Will Eat Itself, dropping the BPMs and stretching the song out to over five minutes. Again, this one has the edge as my preferred version and - no surprise - provides the mixtape with its title.

 

Lastly, the song that introduced me to Colourbox. I picked up the Vertigo-Sampler from a record stall in St. Nicholas' Market in Bristol a few years previously, a Canadian import double vinyl compilation from 1985. If I'm honest, most of it is dispensable: late-period Boomtown Rats, Big Country, Dire Straits and - even more dire - Mark Knopfler solo, twice! However, there are a couple of sides of alternative and indie music: Cocteau Twins, Love And Rockets, This Mortal Coil and Colourbox, which made the price worth a punt. 

The Colourbox track is listed as Sex Gun (Instrumental Version) but is identical to the version (re)titled Just Give 'Em Whiskey on their eponymous debut album. The vocal version of Sex Gun made it onto the free extra album that came with limited quantities, though the one featured in today’s selection is far and away the best version out there, heavy with samples from Westworld and The Prisoner.

 

1) Bendy In The Disco (Remix By Martin Moscrop): Intastella (1991)

2) Biting My Nails (Album Version By Flood & RSW): Renegade Soundwave (1989)

3) Thank You America (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire & Adrian Sherwood): Cabaret Voltaire (1987)

4) False Leader (Edit By Adrian Sherwood, Doug Wimbish & Skip McDonald): Gary Clail / On-U Sound System ft. Big Youth (1991)

5) Head Like A Hole (Album Version By Trent Reznor & Flood): Nine Inch Nails (1990)

6) Come Together (The HypnotoneBrainMachine Mix By Hypnotone): Primal Scream (1990)

7) Wise Up! Sucker (12" Version By Youth): Pop Will Eat Itself (1989)

8) Blue Eyed Boy (Album Version By Flood & RSW): Renegade Soundwave (1989)

9) Sex Gun (Instrumental Version) (aka Just Give 'Em Whiskey): Colourbox (1985)

10) Sex Overdubs (Remix By Adrian Sherwood, Doug Wimbish, Keith LeBlanc & Skip McDonald) (Edit): Tackhead (1990)

 

Side One (45:59)

Side Two here

Hearsay & Heresy

Mixtape recorded 30th July 1997, featuring Gavin Friday on Side 1 and Björk on Side 2. 

 

I think the only Gavin Friday album I owned at this point was Shag Tobacco, so this selection is mostly drawn from CD singles, including the Man Of Misfortune EP, which included the two previous singles from Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves as B-sides.

 

Since then, I've collected the remaining albums, Adam 'n' Eve and Catholic, the latter unbelievably over a decade old now. I think Gavin Friday's solo material is hugely underrated and even the songs dispensed with as B-sides stand tall, as I think this selection attests. 

 
1) Rex Mortuus Est (1992)

2) Angel (Album Version By Tim Simenon) (1995)

3) Falling Off The Edge Of The World (Album Version By Hal Willner, Flood & Dave Bascombe): Gavin Friday ft. Maria McKee (1992)

4) Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves (Album Version): Gavin Friday & The Man Seezer (1989)

5) A Thousand Years (1995)

6) Wake Up Screaming (1992)

7) You Take Away The Sun (Album Version): Gavin Friday & The Man Seezer (1989)

8) Sibyl Vane's Suicide (1992)

9) I Want To Live (Single Mix By Dave Bascombe): Gavin Friday ft. Maria McKee (1992)

10) Caruso (Album Version By Tim Simenon) (1995)

11) Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1991)

 

1989: Each Man Kills The Thing He Loves: 4, 7

1992: Falling Off The Edge Of The World EP: 3, 6, 8

1992: I Want To Live EP: 9, 11

1992: King Of Trash EP: 1

1995: Angel EP: 5

1995: Shag Tobacco: 2, 10

 

Hearsay & Heresy (46:15) (KF) (Mega)

There's 70 Billion People In There

Side 1 of a Cabaret Voltaire mixtape, compiled by my brother in September 1990 as a going away gift just before I went off to Australia for a year, 19 years old, naive and fearless... well, that last bit wasn't quite true. If I thought too long about it, I was bricking it at the prospect of going to the other side of the world solo and essentially making it up as I went along. But I also sensed it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity and I didn't want to pass it up. One of the best decisions I ever made...even more incredible, given some of the poor choices I'd made in the previous couple of years...!

I digress. My brother is a huge Cabaret Voltaire fan, so I listened to a lot of their music blasting from the bedroom next door when we both lived at home and subsequently in his bedsit in Bristol's Stokes Croft area in the latter part of the 1980s. To be honest, I liked Cabaret Voltaire but I'd always gravitated towards their more poppy (if that's the right word for it) or dancefloor oriented material. This is probably reflected in the choice of tracks on this mixtape.

I was blown away by the Yashar 12" (my brother had the original Factory release, of course), both of the John Robie mixes cropping up on mixtapes of my own around that time. I remember getting the coach driver to stick a couple of my cassettes on during a Biology field trip to the Forest of Dean, which will have included Yashar, largely to the indifference of my schoolmates. 

I've tweaked today's selection slightly. Side 1 originally closed with Landslide from 1981's Red Mecca. As with many mixtapes I made or received, there'd often be a 2 minute 'filler' track to pad out a side of a cassette. Good though the track is, I suspect this was the case with Landslide, so I've dropped it and closed with Sensoria instead. To balance the running time, I've also swapped the album version of I Want You for the 12" Mix. 

The mixtape title, as I learned relatively recently, is a mishearing of the vocal sample used on Yashar. The correct wording is, "There's 70 billion people of Earth, where are they hiding?", taken from a 1964 episode of American TV series, The Outer Limits. The episode in question is Demon With A Glass Hand, episode 5 of season 2, written by Harlan Ellison and with the sampled phrase voiced by Robert Culp. Cabaret Voltaire revisited this episode for samples on other tracks on the albums The Voice Of America (1980) and Plasticity (1992).

1) Automotivation (1985)

2) Hypnotised (D.M.D.O.R. Mix By Daniel Miller) (ft. Ten City) (1989)

3) I Want You (12" Mix) (1985)

4) No Escape (Cover of The Seeds) (1979)

5) Yashar (John Robie Mix 2) (1982)

6) White Car (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire & Adrian Sherwood) (1987)

7) Just Fascination (12" Remix By Cabaret Voltaire & John Luongo) (1982)

8) Sensoria (Album Version By Cabaret Voltaire & Flood) (1984)

 

1979: Mix-Up: 4 

1983: Crackdown/Just Fascination EP: 7

1982: Yashar EP: 5

1984: Micro-Phonies: 8

1985: Gasoline In Your Eye (VHS): 1

1985: I Want You EP: 3 

1987: Code: 6

1989: Hypnotised EP: 2

 

Side One (45:15) (KF) (Mega)