August 2010 Mixtape: Early Nineties Nightmares, Part 2: Hypercolor Fever

It's been quite a while since the last mixtape. I've always enjoyed making these but it's hard to keep doing them when there is so much other stuff going on. With that said, I'm going to start accepting outside contributions on mixtapes. I've already asked my friend Graeme to contribute one and Rom and his girlfriend have been working on that whenever they complete I hope to share. Otherwise though, the site will continue as always and I will still contribute mixtapes from time to time, but it won't necessarily be an every month thing. If you would like to contribute a mixtape, drop me a line and we can chat about it. As for this month though...

Last July I posted the original Early Nineties Nightmares mixtape, celebrating the music I listened to on Open House Party during my early teens. It was kind of a love/hate thing but I had a lot of fun making that mix, and it's really grown on me since, so last month I started putting together the sequel, and here it is, more nineties nuttiness with dance music, hip-hop and lots of goofy remixes. I hope you enjoy it!


The Unheard Music August 2010 Mixtape:
Early Nineties Nightmares, Part 2: Hypercolor Fever

01 Prince - 2 Whom It May Concern
Talk about love/hate! This "song" is the soundtrack to a promo video Prince put together for the album he named after the symbol that would later become his name for a few years. This might be the coolest throwaway track Prince ever made, as it samples almost every song from the "symbol" album, albeit rather briefly. The beat was later reused in a remix of 7 from the same album. This is a transfer from the US 12" single of 7, although the track initially appeared as a b-side to the UK 12" of My Name Is Prince. This is some of the last stuff Prince did that I can genuinely say was wonderful, but he was essentially already gone by this point.

02 Tony! Toni! Toné! - Feels Good (12" Party Mix)
My god, what was wrong with me? The original version of Feels Good was a favorite of mine upon it's release, but all these years later it's clear how simple and dull it is. The lyrics, which don't even always rhyme, are insipid, the rap in the middle seems to be there just to be there, and the "old-school" breakdown near the end is ridiculous. All in all, what a terrible song, but this remix makes everything wrong with the original forgivable for being insanely weird in a good way. You get DJs cutting, lots of crazy samples, tons of women having fake orgasms and all sorts of other lunacy for nearly ten minutes. I remember thinking the women moaning was the sexiest thing ever when I was a kid, now their moans are ridiculous, but it still makes the track unforgettable. This is a transfer from an original US 12" for Feels Good.

03 DJ Magic Mike & MC Madness - Dynamic Duo (Commercial/Video Remixed)
I only saw this on Yo! MTV Raps once, maybe twice, but it was enough to lodge it firmly in my memory. I went looking for it but I only found a promo 12" on dark green vinyl, and I had to wait quite a while until the people that owned the record shop decided to sell their promos. It was worth the wait though, as that Miami Bass, those James Brown samples and Madness' old-school flow are dead awesome! This version is basically an edit of the album version, dropping an instrumental section that appeared after the end of this version. And yes, the remix label is correct, it's the Commercial/Video Remixed version. Fresh vinyl rip cominatcha!

04 EMF - EMF (Live At The Bilson)
On the original UK release of EMF's Schubert Dip, this was the last track, but it was deleted from the US release due to obscenities which explain the meaning of the EMF acronym. It did get a US release though as the b-side of the Unbelievable maxi-single, and this is a rip from an original US 12" of that single. The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of X! What else would you expect from a bunch of self-described "Ecstasy Motherfuckers"?

05 Mariah Carey - Someday (New 12" House)
I have no love for modern Mariah Carey anything, and even less for Nick Cannon, but the video/radio remix of Someday is an early nineties classic. That said, I picked up a copy of the US 12" a few years ago and was surprised to find a pesudo-generic house remix of Someday that I'd heard on the radio years before. This is definitely not my favorite version of this track, but it's not bad, and as I don't believe it was released on any other format, I figured I would include it here for your listening pleasure.

06 Gloria Estefan - Live For Loving You (Underground Club Mix)
Gloria Estefan is so thoroughly under appreciated, it's really a crime. Live For Loving You was a VH1 staple with lots of early CG and it had a really catchy remix that was more or less a pop friendly edit of the album version. I hunted down the cassette single for that remix and found an edit of the Underground Club Mix on the flipside. You could easily file this as a cheesy house track, but it's warm and inviting if not a bit stereotypically "housey". I went hunting for the 12" which has quite a few good remixes and a great Miami Sound Machine medley, but the Underground Club Mix is still a favorite so I'm including this fresh vinyl rip for your enjoyment.

07 Tim Dog - I Get Wrecked (Duet with KRS1)
I love this track, but I love it for the beat and KRS' incredible rhymes. Tim Dog, on the other hand, can't rhyme to save his life. For the hell of it I found a copy of Penicillin On Wax just to hear what an album's worth of Tim Dog sounds like, and let me tell you, no one needs to endure that kind of torture. The man is such a bad rapper and his album is so bad, it's not even funny bad, just bad bad. How the hell did this asshole ever get a contract? So, listen to this track, wonder at KRS1's abilities on the mic (and his ridiculously offensive homophobia, such an unfortunate trait of early nineties rap), enjoy the beat, and laugh at how truly AWFUL Tim Dog is. I think it's appropriate to say that he's the rap equivalent of the Star Wars Christmas Special.

08 Monie Love - It's A Shame (My Sister) (Cool As... Mix)
I remember buying the cassette single for It's A Shame and being so disappointed to find the version on the a-side was not the one I heard on the video or radio. Luckily, the b-side was that version, and I was in heaven. But I moved onto an even higher cloud when I found the maxi-single which had the extended version of that mix, which is the Cool As... Mix as featured here. It's funny how Monie has disappeared, although she is apparently still a professional DJ. Her album, Down To Earth, is dead awesome, and I was pleased to find a copy of the UK release with a bunch of tracks not on the US version. I might have to do a future post of that album as it's essential early nineties hip-hop, Afrika Baby Bam from the Jungle Brothers is on production duties. Awesome shit! Her second album though, In A Word Or 2, is best left forgotten. Let's face it, as soon as most artists hook up with Prince is when everything goes to hell for their careers.

09 Janet Jackson - Black Cat (3 Snaps Up 12")
Wasn't 3 Snaps Up that thing that Men On Film from In Living Color used to do? In a "Z" formation? Anyway, this is a totally insane remix of Black Cat that I can't believe got released, although it's a damn good thing that it did. All kinds of sped-up samples of Janet with lots of keyboards, changing beats and fake horns. This is a great example of a remix that practically rewrites the original song. There is a great dub of this too that features the entire vocal, but the regular 3 Snaps Up remix is where it's at so it's meant for this mix.

10 Fred Schneider - Monster (1991 Remix)
This song is technically from 1984, although it was remixed and reissued in 1991. It originally appeared on the Fred Schneider & The Shake Society album, which was basically John Cote and Fred with Bernie Worrell on production. With the success of The B-52's Cosmic Thing album in 1989, Reprise decided to reissue the Shake Society album as a self-titled Fred Schneider album as well as a compilation of The B-52's Party Mix and Mesopotamia EPs. Mesopotamia was completely remixed and the Fred Schneider album featured a few remixed tracks, one of them being Monster, and it was issued again as a single. For the record, Fred insists this song isn't about anything dirty, as supposedly evidenced by the last verse, but does anyone really believe that?

11 Stacy Earl - Love Me All Up (Extended Dance Mix)
While I can't confirm this, Stacy Earl appears to have been a protege of Oliver Leiber, best known for his work with Paula Abdul on her first album. Her album sounds just like a collection of Paula Abdul rejects from that era. Love Me All Up was something of a radio hit although her follow-up single, Romeo & Juliet, a duet between Stacy and Oliver, was bigger, but Love Me All Up meant a lot more to me. The original version, which I don't seem to have a copy of any more, is a cheesy but lovable house number, but this remix cranks the drama up a few notches. One of the samples in it might even be Han Solo.

On a note unrelated to this song, the vocals on Romeo & Juliet were credited to The Wild Pair, the duo of Oliver Leiber and Paula Abdul that did the vocals on Paula's Opposites Attract. Now, Paula definitely didn't do vocals on Romeo & Juliet, so was Oliver in the business of using The Wild Pair name for any vocal collaboration he did with a female singer? Strange.

12 Trilogy - Love Me Forever Or Love Me Not (The "Drums Of Doom" Radio Mix)
Following through with the threat I made a few months ago, I'm not gonna do a full post on Trilogy, I promise, but I knew I had to share this track. Trilogy was a freestyle Latin dance group that Robert Clivillés and David Cole, best known as the men behind C+C Music Factory, took under their wings. Their total output in association with C+C was two singles, although Q-Unique continued to work with C+C and eventually joined The Arsonists. As for the rest of the group, no idea, but their singles, Love Me Forever and Good Time, are practically forgotten. Good Time is worth rediscovering, although Love Me Forever is particularly cheesy. That said, I loved this song as a kid and it's from the era in question, so it's included here for posterity. This version is taken from a promo CD with five other mixes, although there was at least one other promo CD released with a completely different set of remixes, a 12" with yet another completely different set of remixes and a cassette single with yet two more completely different mixes. WAY TOO MANY MIXES! I wish this started with the horns but otherwise this mix is all you need regarding this song. And if you know more about what happened to the other guys from Trilogy, drop me a line, would you?

13 Cathy Dennis - Just Another Dream (Funky Love Mix)
Okay, this is simply ridiculous. Just Another Dream hasn't aged well compared to Cathy's other big hit, Touch Me (All Night Long), at least not in the US, but this remix is truly strange. It starts by ripping off Manuel Göttsching's E2-E4, goes for almost ten minutes and basically sounds like an excuse for Dancin' Danny D to make this remix as long as absolutely possible. All things considered, it's not a terrible remix, it's just really REALLY long. So, brace yourself for more Cathy Dennis than anyone really needs. I imagine that most people will play this track once and then stop it after 12 in the future.