West End Girls/Flamboyant (DJ Hell Mixes)
Pet Shop Boys
(Parlophone)
Reported Sunday, April 4 2004
Courtesy of Jonty_Adderley @ www.skrufff.com
"Since rave music the ethos in clubs has been very inclusive, which is a powerful thing but electroclash is outsider music not insider. It's for people who want to be different and that makes a refreshing change these days."
Chatting to DJ Magazine some months ago Pet Shop Boys singer Neil Tennant was typically enthusiastic about London's latest underground club scene, reflecting both their own high profile presence at spots like Nag and The Cock as well as the Pet Shop Boys' continuing influence as the world's most successful electronic band ever. Because ever since West End Girls topped UK (then later US) charts in 1986, they've remained at the top of the pop and club games, via their radio friendly pop hits and life spent living on the front line of club culture.
Teaming up as a band in 1982, the pair first released West End Girls in 1984, achieving massive dance floor success in France, Belgium and California while failing completely in the UK. Bolstered by their overseas acclaim, Tennant and his secretive sideman Chris Lowe persevered, signing to EMI in 1986 to score one of the biggest pop hits of the year, when West End Girls was released (with a new Stephen Hague ultra-atmospheric production). Presumably spotting a winning formula, the pair went on to release scores of pop/ club smashes, rarely deviating from a template of hook laden, accessible electronic pop music coupled with intelligent, thought-provoking adult lyrics and 20 years on DJ Hell has wisely kept the basic approach. Instead, he's reworked the original's beat, picking it up and mixing it up just a little, to provide a new lease of life on today's (electroclash) dance floors.
Hell's mix of Flamboyant, on the other hand, seems more deliberately electro, with disco hand claps, space age sound effects and a pure electroclash style keyboard riff pushing out most of the original's pop elements, in suitably appropriate way. Release date is March 29th, with both mixes available on 12" vinyl via the Pet Shop Boys' website.
http://www.petshopboys.co.uk
|
|
|
