Various - Random (02) mixes of Gary Numan
If one thing is for sure the bleakness and sinister feel to most of Gary Numan's music is retained in these varied renditions of his past hits with only a few actually using his vocals and the same kind of sounds used on the originals.
Although I was kind of expecting full on lush re-workings of these selections I suspected that the dance floor treatments exhibited on this CD would prevail, with most of the remixes filled to the brim with high energy dance beats and the usual techno fills.
The Greenhaus version of I Die, You Die is the first one to use the original vocals at various moments throughout the track but preferring to go the dance route rather than focus more on the way the original was constructed. Nothing wrong with this though. Each artist approaches each track from different angles which is what a compilation is all about.
Fueled by the recent release of Mr. Numan's album Exile this Random (02) CD is, as you most likely guessed, the second compilation of remixes to be released by Beggars Banquet, the label that released his classic early 80's albums which spawned the likes of Cars, and Are 'Friends' Electric? among others.
Talking of Cars the Mike Dearborn version may as well be a remix of anything while the Dave Clarke version merely messes around with the bass line and puts the vocals through a harmonizer of some kind. Other than a few other minor changes it's pretty much the same as the original, so I don't quite get the point.
Highlights however include Alex Hazzard's version of Films and Peter Lazonby's The Iceman Cometh (our favorite), both of which not only use Numan's distinctive voice throughout but also introduce elements that compliment the structure and feel of the originals rather than spending a few hours one afternoon with a drum machine and calling it a remix.
The main thing is that there is another CD available in the World that includes remixes of Gary Numan's music, and that certainly cannot be a bad thing however you look at it!.
Rating: 770,257 (out of a possible 1,000,000)
