One of the only real benefits to the enthusiast and consumer of music during the past decade or so of consolidation and corporate switcheroos that have been bouncing record label catalogues around is that very often the new guard in charge of a label will take interesting chances with their past archives. This is what allowed an unprecedented compilation like Future Retro to come into being.
This is the kind of collection that dance music fans dream of in their sleep, comprised almost exclusively of new mixes of classic tracks from the Warner Bros., Sire, Elektra, Qwest, and I-Square labels. Has there ever even been a compilation that had New Order, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Book of Love, Alphaville, INXS, Morrissey, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Yaz all featured prominently? Not to mention one that treats the enclosed tracks to respectful and (generally) intriguing remixes?
Kicking off with a bang are Australia's Infusion, taking The Cure's "The Walk" and getting at the heart of what makes it a timeless dance record. Equally well-done are Way Out West's take on "Lips Like Sugar" by Echo and the Bunnymen and Tiga's electroshuffle running-to-stand-still rethinking of Depeche Mode's "Shake the Disease." Similarly audacious, but with the end result in more of a dubby, reggaeish tempo is Morrissey's "Suedehead," remixed by, of all people, Sparks! The Maels still have it, and hearing Il Moz's voice in a dancefloor context is both weird and enervating. DJ Irene takes Book of Love's "Boy" and welds some rockin' guitars to it, and damned if it doesn't work. I expect to hear this mix popping up in some upcoming teen movie.
Even the couple of tracks that don't completely succeed (the Erasure, the Yaz, the Howard Jones) still seem alive with creativity. One can tell that there wasn't some sort of iron fist behind the scenes trying to keep everything easily marketable and same-sounding, and it can only bode well for future projects along the same lines.
Some suggestions for the next go-round with 80s classics from the WEA vaults (just because I can)... a-ha's "The Sun Always Shines on TV" remixed by someone like Gabriel & Dresden or Dezrok, Ofra Haza's "Galbi" remixed by Andre 3000 or Jason Bentley, Van Halen's "I'll Wait" would sound pretty awesome in the hands of one of the more melodic electroclashers like Stuart Price/Jacques LuCont/Paper Faces/Les Rhythmes Digitales/whatever he's calling himself this week, and I'd love to hear some of the early-80s B-52s numbers like "Dirty Back Road" given over to some of hip-hop's Dirty South producers... but that's just me.
Future Retro is simply the most encouraging major label remix project ever. Here's to several more.
