eric's little black star » XTC, the Dub Mix, and What it Means to You.

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eric on Feb 10th 2009 at 3:08 am Listen, Music, Records

XTC, the Dub Mix, and What it Means to You.

Way so far back in 1980, British new wave band, XTC cut their second album. It was called Go2. Prior to its release, Andy Partridge, vocalist and guitarist, went back into the studio to make five “dub mixes” from five of the songs.

What came out of this weird little experiment in proto-dubbing was five tracks that aren’t generally seen as very listenable.

But when I was at Jive Time Records in Fremont this past weekend, I found the Go+ EP. It’s not nearly as bad as I imagined. And I know that doesn’t really make you want to listen to it, but it is a pretty interesting idea that was later executed in a much better way.

Want to hear a couple of songs?

Let’s go!

First will be the original song, then after that, the dub mix version. You’ll see.

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Meccanic Dancing (Oh We Go!)

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Dance with Me, Germany (dub of Meccanic Dancing)

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I am the Audience

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Clap Clap Clap (dub of I am the Audience)

A few years (and a few dub EPs) later, they tried it again, thinking along the lines of a dub-influenced dance remix rather than just a straight dub mix:

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Down in the Cockpit (from the English Settlement LP)

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Cockpit Dance Mixture

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5 responses so far

5 Comments

Comment by Calder

2009-02-10 19:27:35

Technical question: What kind of turntable do you have and what kind of receiver do you have? And I saw in Australia, somebody makes a cassette deck with a USB/computer port in it.

Comment by eric

2009-02-10 19:38:17

My turntable is a Audio-Technica AT-PL120. It’s got a built in preamp and honestly, I’m not thrilled with that. I’ll be getting another preamp sometime in the future. Also, it’s got no grounding wire. It claims to not need one and honestly, it doesn’t seem to. Weird, eh?

My receiver is a Philips DVD Micro Theater MCD908. It’s got tubes. Probably not so great for video, but I don’t use it for that – only audio. And it’s fine for my purposes.

To take vinyl to digital, I run into a roland edirol ua-1ex, it’s a USB soundcard.

Comment by Calder

2009-02-10 22:54:52

I don’t understand how a turntable could not have a ground. Mine is a Technics SL 1300 and I was using an old Radio Shack mixer that had a ground screw. The USB turntables are falling in price, I’ve seen one as cheap as $300.

Comment by eric

2009-02-11 07:08:53

It’s something in how they isolate the powersupply. I was worried about getting a hum, but nope, it’s just not there.

Weird, eh?

Comment by Glamypunk

2009-09-12 08:46:28

Great article about an almost forgotten jewel. Love the Go+ even more then the Original Go album with which it was delivered.

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