Got To Dance

I got a tip-off about this today from a Mr. M.S. of North London (thanx): There's a dance talent competition on Sky One (UK) at the moment, and one of the groups, called "Beyond Repair" (!) used my track. I feel a bit spun out to watch it, since it's an X-Factor type production... you can see it here (beware they make you watch an advert before the clip.)

[edit 31 Jan: as now parodied on Harry Hill's TV Burp - as can be seen here @ 3:40]

So, would you like to read some blah about this track? It's my "remix" of The Ampex Twins track "Vimto". I made it one early afternoon in 1994 when I was living in Bounds Green. I was in a really bad mood at the time, which coloured my perception somewhat, in fact I marked it on the DAT inlay as "shit track." When I was lucky enough to have the opportunity of having a remix out on the aforementioned release, I gave the choice of this track or the track called "Sixed" and this one was chosen, much to my surprise. I subsequently liked it more, once my memory of having made it, along with whatever mood I was in, faded. It seems to be held in high regard by mid-90's electronic music affectionados, and I won't argue with that... the strings buildup is totally nicked from Trans Europe Express and the tunes and beat are pretty simplistic, maybe that's the secret of its appeal.
I won't make any broadcast royalties from this, as it's technically written and produced by someone else, but that cuts both ways as I get the mechanicals from the remix of my track that appears on 27 Mixes For Cash, and that sold quite a lot!
I think remixes are generally a bad deal for the artist, as it means letting go of a piece of music forever in return for a flat fee. It's only good if there is a significant amount of money or recognition to be had, or both (see above.) But even when it does, it makes me sad. It's like selling a baby for adoption. You lose control of things like the way it is mastered. It's frustrating to sweat over a track and be really happy with the result, only to listen back to the finished copy and realise that they have simply put it through some kind of poor quality VST compression plugin that has mangled the transients and turned it into a gloopy mess, which has then been pressed as the second track on that side of the 12 inch, thereby reducing the quality even more.
Also, if you are a big name artist and have done enough remixes that could be put together as an album, you may find yourself in the position of having a shady music business operator quietly going around and licensing all of those tracks in order to make a "new" album "by" you on the sly, from which you will earn not a penny (thus forcing you and your record company to squash this attempt by licensing the tracks for an "official" version, for which your fans accuse you of being a rip-off merchant!) It's one of those things which is technically absolutely above board but morally stinks. Which is a pretty good description of the music business overall. The music business is like the porn business - it's not the people who are actually doing the f***ing who are making the money! And as this post threatens to turn into a rant, I will finish it here!