Review: SexMix Vol. 1 – Frankie Goes To Hollywood – UPDATED 21/11/12

To get Frankie, you have to know Frankie. You had to have been around between 1983 and 1987. You had to have been a certain age. You had to have bought the t-shirts, the twelve inches and the promise of a utopian/dystopian, sexually ambiguous society, living its life according to a Paul Morley script.

I was there. I was fourteen to seventeen years old. I owned a genuine Frankie Says War! Hide Yourself t-shirt. I bought all of the twelve inch singles and found myself awoken to the beautiful eroticism, the clash of heterosexuality and homosexuality, found myself inquisitive of such things as nuclear arsenals and the morbid fascination of nuclear war. I found myself trying to write and quote just like Morley. I was prime target fodder for the Frankie machine.

And, some 28 years later, I still am. I still get excited by Frankie. But now, my knowledge is bolstered by decades of musical investigation, a conversion to the Church of Trevor Horn, an appreciation of the reality behind the machine that was Frankie. I’m even on vague speaking terms with Holly Johnson & Paul Rutherford. But I still get excited by a Frankie release. I still feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand proud when I listen to “Welcome To The Pleasuredome“. The Frankie canon is not a vast one, or so you’d think. What is well known is the incredible rate of production that the THeam was capable of, making mix after mix after mix. Releasing them in unique and clever ways. Not quite ripping consumers off and always providing added value; a desire for each element in the series; a completist collectors dream and a marketing executive’s nirvana.

In recent years, under the curation of Ian Peel, a man who, like me, shares the sames passion for all things Zang Tuum Tumb, we have seen the reissue of Frankie’s two studio albums, Welcome To The Pleasuredome and Liverpool, both with new packaging, new artwork, remastered and with bonus content. Splendid offerings and essential musical tomes of their era. With those out of the way, and countless “Greatest Hits” and remix compilations already causing our CD shelves to flex, this latest ejaculate from the ZTT archives is a collection of rare material, most of which has never graced the shiny 5″ platter we call a CD. This is no shoddy collection of studio out-takes either. We have 23 minute versions of Warriors Of The Wasteland, 11 minute versions of “Pleasuredome”, 16 minute versions of Relax and a 17 minute version of Rage Hard, intertwined with the clever, witty, humorous segues that first emerged on their debut long player. The most exciting thing about this album is that it is billed as Volume One, and countless references in the liner notes suggest there is more, lots more, to come.

All of these pieces are contained within a glossy three panel gatefold and accompanying booklet, with Ian’s liner notes, forever tipping a nod to Morley’s acerbic wit and pomposity. The Frankie experience is multi-faceted. Each element in isolation is intriguing, entertaining, contentious, educational. But as a whole, the experience is captivating and all-consuming. Remember, Frankie was alive when the music listening experience still consisted of sliding a record out of its sleeve, placing a needle on it and then sitting back to engage with the words and images contained on the sleeve. These reissues do their very best to recreate that experience.

Contained in this collection are songs spanning both album. Songs that were originally released as ZTT “singlette”‘s on compact cassette. Now, remastered, we have them on CD and as digital downloads. I won’t try to explain the history and evolution of these items because a) Ian does it far better in the liner notes, b) I’m not a plagiarist and c) I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment of reading those notes whilst listening to the music. Some of these tracks here have never been available to buy, some were extremely limited to buy back in the day and some have been included for completeness. The ZTT Elements series is exactly that. A series of episodes. Each episode answering questions previously asked in earlier instalments, and then asking fresh questions that we hope will be answered next time. Highlights for me include Relax (International) which features an intro from Holly dedicating it to “Europa”, the soundtrack from Bernard Rose’s video of the Welcome To The Pleasuredome single, the 7″ version of The World Is My Oyster, seventeen minutes of Rage Hard, twenty three minutes of Warriors and a newly remastered Two Tribes (Carnage). And the segues. Lovely, tiny epics in their own right.

There is one little thing. Last week, it emerged that, in the words of ZTT, there had been a technical fuck up, resulting in Mono masters for tracks 1-5 on Disc One being sent to the production facility, instead of Stereo ones. Here’s the statement…

“Please note that due to, as they say in the trade, a ‘technical f*** up’, mono masters were sent to press for CD1 tracks 01-05. One channel is mirrored on both sides.

If and when a suitable stereo master becomes available, we will offer this as a free, lossless download as per the recent Nasty Rox Inc. update.”

Now, this is unfortunate, and I can imagine saw Ian tearing his hair out with frustration. So, when I got my review copy, I listened to the first 5 tracks and when heard over speakers, it’s not too noticeable. On headphones, everything does sound a bit central and static, but it’s not awful by any stretch of the imagination. ZTT’s offer of free replacement tracks, should they show up, is admirable. Some purists are up in arms, but imagine how things might’ve been 10-15 years ago. This kind of error would occur and there would be no way the label could rectify it without pulling all the copies and re-pressing them at huge cost. I look forward to the replacement files becoming available soon.

UPDATE!!

This just in from Salvo…

News regarding Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Sex Mix release (SALVOMDCD28)

For your reference there will be one or other of two codes on the discs featuring the tracks with one channel repeated on both sides and they are: *053731 and *055114
The code on the new discs is: *056837
These codes can be found on the underside of the disc in the ring around the centre.
In addition, those who bought digital downloads of the album can now download an updated version at the store from which it was originally purchased.

Go get your replacements, people! 🙂

SexMix is out on August 6th 2012 and available for Pre-Order right now for approx £7. No, I can’t believe how cheap that is either. Two hours, twenty one minutes and forty nine seconds of Frankie for £7.

A massive thanks to Ian Peel at Let It Beep, on behalf of ZTT.

Catalogue # SALVOMDCD28 – Element 22

Disc One:

1. “all in the body” 00:01:23
2. The Soundtrack from Bernard Rose’s Video of the Welcome to the Pleasuredome Single 00:05:43
3. Get It On 00:04:11
4. Welcome to the Pleasuredome (How to Remake the World, Completely) 00:11:40
5. “all in the mind” 00:01:13
6. Relax (International) 00:04:41
7. The Power of Love (extended, singlette version) 00:09:20
8. “scrapped” 00:01:39
9. Holier Than Thou 00:01:08
10. “trapped” 00:02:29
11. Holier Than Thou 00:04:09
12. The Power of Love (instrumental, singlette version) 00:03:32
13. The World is My Oyster (in its 7” form) 00:04:17
14. “don’t lose what’s left” 00:00:18
15. Rage Hard 00:17:12

Disc Two:

1. Relax (Sex Mix) 00:16:00
2. Later On (from One September Monday) 00:01:36
3. Ferry Cross The Mersey (…and here I’ll stay) 00:04:03
4. Two Tribes (Keep The Peace, intro) 00:00:24
5. One February Friday (singlette version, part 1) 00:00:39
6. Two Tribes (Carnage) 00:07:54
7. One February Friday (singlette version, part 2) 00:01:08
8. War (somewhere between Hiding and Hidden) 00:04:15
9. One February Friday (singlette version, part 3) 00:00:22
10. Two Tribes (Keep The Peace, outro) 00:00:05
11. Warriors of the Wasteland (Compacted) 00:23:37
12. Do You Think I’m Sexy? 00:03:30
13. Watching the Wildlife (Voiceless) 00:03:50

All tracks have been baked and digitally transferred from the original Ampex master tapes, except for ‘Relax’ (International) and ‘The World is My Oyster’ (at its full length) (from masters previously created for ZTT Japan’s Return to the Pleasuredome box set).