Public Image Ltd. - Monitor Mixes (Bootleg 12")

Before I tell you about these tracks, I want to rant for a moment about Pitchfork's review for the new David Byrne and Fatboy Slim record, Here Lies Love. Yup, David Byrne AND Fatboy Slim, together with a giant list of their friends contributing vocals, all for a musical that has been performed a few times prior to the actual recording of the album. They gave it a 5.0 out of 10, which is pretty mediocre, but their whole argument is that it's very middling music in their opinion, without taking into account that there are performances that accompany each song. As I understand it, the album, while a release all it's own, is meant as a companion to the performances, so is it fair to judge something when you've only seen half of it? I'm sure the reviewer hasn't seen the performance and, as it's not available for viewing anywhere at the moment, although excerpts are included on a special-edition DVD included with some versions of the album, I won't be surprised if they never see it as they probably wouldn't bother if given the chance. That's all fine and good, but how can you give something a fair review if you leave out a significant part of it's content? Okay, rant over.

In 2005, John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols (yeah, I know you know that, just saying) and leader of Public Image Ltd., released a career-spanning retrospective compilation named The Best Of British £1 Notes. The majority of the compilation contained little new for fans of Mr. Lydon's works with a primary focus on Public Image Ltd., although it gave a thorough overview of that band's recorded history, making the compilation quite a worthy purchase.

The compilation was released in both single and double CD packages, but there was also an accompanying DVD with videos for many of the tracks. The big coup for owning that DVD, other than having the great video for This Is Not A Love Song among other amazing clips, was the oddball inclusion of three audio only tracks, all of which were monitor mixes from Public Image Ltd.'s Metal Box sessions.

Somewhere along the way, some genius decided to make a bootleg 12" with two of those monitor mixes, and boy are they crazy! First off is the Melodrama Mix of Albatross which is even murkier and weirded-out than the album version, whereas the B-Side is an extended monitor mix of Death Disco, sometimes referred to as Swan Lake due to the repeating motif from that piece throughout the track. It goes on long enough that at it's finish, Lydon chimes in with "Well that's long enough for anyone, innit?" Great stuff! A second mix of Albatross was included on the DVD, but as it wasn't too different from the album version the bootlegger decided to leave it off the 12". Right decision if you ask me. I would include it here too but I can't find it for some reason. Don't worry, that will be rectified eventually. If you'd like to see some images of the 12", you can check out the discogs reference. Enjoy!

UPDATE: See! I knew I'd find it! Download link for the Albatross Monitor Mix is below!

Public Image Ltd. - Monitor Mixes (Bootleg 12")

01 Albatross (Melodrama Mix)
02 Death Disco (Monitor Mix)


Public Image Ltd. - Albatross (Monitor Mix)



PS - I don't know what John Lydon would have to say about Malcolm Mclaren's death, and even I can't say much nice about him, but I do love me some Duck Rock. Regardless, Rest In Peace Malcolm. Cancer fucking sucks.