In the late 90's I did a 2 month US tour with the Icelandic band GusGus. This was my first big tour, doing shows every other night, living on the tour bus, the whole deal. Good fun. A year or so later the second GusGus album This Is Normal was released and my newfound friends in the band asked me to remix the track "V.I.P." This is the result.

A few fun facts (to me, at least) about this remix: I had just discovered the program Metasynth and the repeating sound loop that opens this is the vocal line manipulated through that. This mix started my predilection with recording fake stand-up bass lines which I still sort of have to this day (see my "Mouth" remix from a couple weeks ago). The second part of the mix was meant to be a 'bonus beats' version but it's timed so it can be played as an epilogue to the actual mix (and appears like this on the UK vinyl version). When I later did my live shows (on the Meat Beat Manifesto and Lo-Fidelity All Stars tours) I would usually do this 'bonus beats' bit as the last song of my set. The weird little ambient 'crackling' noises that are on this mix (and pretty much all my remixes from this period) is from a preset on a Roland JX-8P that was purchased from Dave Allen (of Shriekback/Gang Of Four fame).

I don't think this was ever released digitally ... as far as I know it's vinyl only, folks. The UK 12" version with my mix complete with bonus beats can be found on Discogs.com HERE. There was also a US version which has the shorter version of the mix, sans bonus beats, which you can find HERE. This second 12" is quite the curiosity in my career as I share remix credits with Francois K. and Masters At Work. So cool.

I'm still in touch with some of the members of GusGus. Their new album, titled 24/7, is quite good.

Once again, as a reminder, I’m always up for remixing if your label or song is in need of something like the above. Feel free to contact me by clicking HERE.

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