From: Al Crawford <awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Subject: Review: Severed Heads - Twister EP
Followup-To: rec.music.industrial
Originator: recmusic@galaxy
Reply-To: Al Crawford <awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk>
Organization: The University Of Edinburgh - Department Of Computer Science
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 15:30:20 GMT

Severed Heads		Twister			Volition VOLTCD 45 [Aus]

	Total Running Time: 30 min 53 sec

	1.	Twister - Classic Mix			3:30
	2.	Twister - Act Of God Edit		4:19
	3.	The Tingler - Itch-E & Scratch-E Remix	4:22
	4.	Pilot In Hell - Live Mix		3:12
	5.	The Tingler - Gridlock Remix		4:45
	6.	Twister - Racic Remix			8:21
	7.	Twistapella				2:14

Before the review proper, I should really make clear my attitude to dance
mixes. To understand it, it is probably best to draw an analogy. Imagine
for a moment that songs are sheep. They vary greatly, from purebred Merinos
to scrawny things that stand quaking in terror at the sight of, well,
anything, but they all exhibit certain intrinsic sheeplike qualities - they
have wool, they make "baa" noises and they get very nervous around certain
Australians.

A dance track is however a rather different beast. Not a sheep, but a pig -
larger, meatier, gruntier and covered in bristles rather than wool. The
problem that has afflicted artists and producers who are trying to create
dance mixes is how to make music that has both sheeplike and piglike
qualities.

The first approach to this problem has been in use for many years and is to
fatten up a sheep to piglike proportions and then try to persuade it to
make grunting noises. This is an analogy to the `extended mix' which takes
the existing song and perhaps emphasises the rhythm track, but is generally
just a longer version of the original. They appeared in the musical
mainstream around the early 80s.

Some bright producer somewhere along the line came up with the idea of
shearing the sheep and using glue to fix the resulting fleece to a pig. The
pig may also be trained to go "baa" occasionally. The result is still
sheeplike, albeit rather odd looking, and retains the essence of sheepness
that characterised the original. These were the `dance remixes' that
appeared in the early-to-mid 80s. They're more than just extended versions
of the original track, but they are generally still instantly recognisable
as a version of the song on which they were based.

Hmmm, to explain the next bit requires an extension to our analogy. All
sheep look the same, except perhaps to their parents. Although given the
intelligence of sheep, I'd very much doubt even that. So, to distinguish
one particular sheep from all the other sheep, each one wears a hat. These
hats vary greatly in size, style and shape and allow us to easily
differentiate sheep.

The recent trend in dance mixes is an unfortunate one. The influence of the
big-name producer is beginning to exceed that of the artist with the result
that many producers appear to consider the sheep expendable. Instead, they
take the sheep's hat and put it on their own pig. Now this pig bears *no
resemblance* whatsoever to a sheep and has nothing to do with the original
artist's sheep but so many people are looking for pigs they can dance to
rather than sheep they can listen to that they either don't care about the
absence of the sheep or take the hat on the pig as being close enough to
the original for them.

It's true that this approach doesn't necessarily lead to a bad dance mix.
The pig might be well bred, perhaps better bred even than the sheep, or the
hat might be very impressive indeed (one of those Carmen Miranda jobs with
all the fruit, for example) and thus dwarf the pig completely. A case of
"Never mind the breed of the farmyard quadruped, just look at the size of
that hat!"

When Tom Ellard released _Cuisine_ last year, it was quite obvious that the
album contained several choice sheep. Light, fluffy, the sort of sheep you
could safely take home to meet your parents. The pick of these was
"Twister" which, while perhaps not wearing a fruitbowl on its head, was at
least sporting a very impressive piece of millinery on its wooly pate. It
did, however, have an inexplicable nervous expression on its face.

And now we discover why. It was nervous at the presence of Robert Racic.
Racic has in the past taken other Severed Heads sheep and either fattened
them up or fixed their fleeces to suitably sized pigs. The results have
generally been pleasant to listen to - danceable while still easily
recognisable.

However, somewhere between then and now, Racic seems to have decided that
he is no longer a producer but instead is a Producer and thus entitled to
throw the sheep away completely. The pigs of his labour can be found here
on the _Twister_ EP.

The EP kicks off with the original mix of "Twister". Highpoint of _Cuisine_
and the highpoint of the EP too. This is followed by Racic's "Act Of God
Edit". The resemblance to the original is token, amounting to a selection
of samples and a heavily processed version of the vocal track. As pigs go
it's reasonably well bred, but were it not for the size of the hat that the
sheep was originally wearing, there would be no resemblance at all.
Definitely a case of "Oh look, a pig with a hat on" rather than "My, that's
a large sheep".

The same applies, although not to quite the same degree, to the "Itch-E And
Scratch-E" remix of "The Tingler". The producers (Paul Mac and Andrew
Rantzen) have retained certain elements of the original sheep but,
unfortunately, the sheep wasn't wearing quite as large a hat (i.e. the
original song isn't as strong) so the bits they've retained get swamped
under a very meaty porcine dance track.

A brief respite follows in the form of a live mix of "Pilot In Hell". Nice
raspy synths and whispered vocals, but generally similar to the original.
Still, a nice interlude, separating the pigs from the sheep.

Back to the dance remixes. The "Gridlock" remix of "The Tingler" by one of
the guys from Boxcar and Someone Else actually retains more of the original
track than either of the dance remixes encountered so far. Initially at
least, it appears they've made an effort to stick large chunks of fleece to
their pig, making it easily recognisable.

However, they have committed a truly heinous sin - Deadly Dance Track Sin
#3 to be precise. This involves placing those annoying "Whoo!" samples in
the track. There aren't many, admittedly, and at least they aren't the full
"Whoo! Yeah!" noise (this is Deadly Dance Track Sin #2) but putting these
effects into a dance track is tantamount to erecting a huge neon sign
behind your pig saying "THIS IS A PIG/DANCE TRACK". Still, faults like this
aside, the "Gridlock" remix is probably the best remix here. This might be
due to it retaining more of the feel of the original track...

...or it might be due to its being followed closely by the "Racic Remix"
and thus looking good by comparison.  Imagine the "Act Of God Edit" with
the few remaining traces of the original track obliterated. In fact, all
that it has in common with the original track is the vocal track, which
doesn't even make an appearance until about 3 minutes in. When I buy a CD
that says "Severed Heads" on it, that's what I expect to get. Not "Robert
Racic (With The Occasional Severed Heads Sample)".

Worse is yet to come. "Twistapella" = "Racic takes the processed vocal
tracks and adds the occasional synth noodling in the background". It is
*really* tacky, giving the impression of something knocked off in half an
hour or so as filler. Fortunately it's not very long so the misery isn't
prolonged.

So, overall, a big disappointment. Apart from the original mix and the live
mix of "Pilot In Hell", the only one of the dance mixes that's even worth a
listen is the "Gridlock Remix". The rest of the material is utterly
disposable. Meaning it'll probably go down a bomb on the dancefloor.

Erland Rating: -1
Crawford Rating: Pineapple/Pink/Sheepdog

--
			Al Crawford - awrc@dcs.ed.ac.uk
	  Department Of Computer Science, The University of Edinburgh
   Rm 1410, JCMB, Kings Buildings, Mayfield Rd, EDINBURGH, EH9 3JZ, Scotland
	     Tel: +44 (0) 31 650 5165  Fax: +44 (0) 31 667 7209

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