Greatest Hits Pop Music : Clubbed to Death: the Greatest Hits Remixed

Clubbed to Death: the Greatest Hits Remixed

£57.24

  1. Mr Big
  2. All Day And All Of The Night
  3. Golden Brown
  4. Duchess
  5. No More Heroes
  6. Beast/Euphoric Delerium
  7. Nice And Sleazy
  8. European Female
  9. I ll Be Seeing You
  10. Golden Brown
  11. Golden Boy
  12. Beast/Big In America/Peaches

Although the very notion of the Stranglers hulk-like, near-Septuagenarian drummer Jet Black avin it large to some bangin choons seems too terrifying to contemplate. Clubbed To Death successfully suggests otherwise. Remixed in unceremoniously deconstructionist style by X-ERT Production s writer / technician Mike Bennett, who, aside from working with The Fall, Ian Brown, Kim Fowley and Utah Saints, was the dance boffin behind the unlikely critical success of Wishbone Ash s drum & bass Trance Visionary. Clubbed To Death garrottes 10 Stranglers songs (all of them performances by the Mark Two, post-Hugh Cornwell line-up) and revives them in a pulsating assortment of hardcore dance styles. Leather-jacketed hardliners may be appalled but others--those who have come grown accustomed to The Stranglers career-long bloody-minded intransigence--will find subversive appeal in the pacey house-ska of Nice n Sleazy (which successfully boots its bass-line filching techno-punk imposter Mad Dog by Elastica in the groin) and an urgent interpretation of No More Heroes (Slain Mix) which wisely desists from tampering with the corrosive vibe of the original. Even if many of the familiar melodies rarely filter through, Golden Brown remains practically intact whilst the tune to the Duchess(Art-E-Tart Mix) is as evident as an accusation flung in the direction of the Manic Street Preachers. Remarkably, The Beast (Capricornucopia Mix)--originally an unreleased JJ Burnel instrumental demo from 1984 s Aural Sculpture sessions and otherwise known as Un Jour Parfait--morphs into an energetic 4/4 Eurodance anthem which could have clubbers in the Balearics waving their arms in the air. And, who knows, maybe even Jet Black. --Kevin Maidment

So disappointing - The last attempt at a clubbed up Stranglers tune, released under The Stranglers name was Sweet Smell of Success back in 1990 by a certain Judge Jules and was pretty much the last thing released by the original line up.Interesting though it was, for me it didn t really work. But, having seen the track listing for Clubbed to Death (a mixture of some classic MkI and not-so-classic MarkII numbers), and having heard some great re-mixes of other non-Stranglers work over the past 12 months (mainly on London s radio XFM), not forgetting the good reworking / re-mix of Golden Brown by Kaleef a few years back, I was really looking forward to getting this thru the mail. It arrived this morning and I am so dissapointed by it.OK, the mixes themselves are reasonable - some disintegrate in the kind of Euro-dance-pap The Venga Boys would be proud of, while the instrumental European Female has shades of the Meninblack album. Sadly, it s the fact that all the MkI stuff features Paul Roberts (as opposed the sneering, dead-pan delivery of Hugh Cornwell) on vocals that makes it so, so disappointing. Now, this isn t some blind anti-Stranglers since Hugh left hatred - it s just that this doesn t feel like a remix of a Stranglers song, it sounds like a cheap cover version, cashing in on the Stranglers name. The use of non-Hugh recordings may be down to contractural difficulties, may be down to band input, could be down to HC not wanting to be associated with the work but it spoils and cheapens the end result. This could have been so much better if the original vocal tracks had been used, however I think this will get little airing and my copy will gather dust on my CD shelf.




Clubbed to Death: the Greatest Hits Remixed