Metamatic Forums News and Announcements John Foxx news Free downloads...

In a few days time a couple of FREE downloads will be made available from Townsend Records as a way of saying "thank-you" to everyone for your continuing and ongoing support.

The two tracks are brand new remixes of Impossible and Neuro Video which have been created by Jori Hulkkonen.

We hope that you'll all enjoy them...

Rob

I sure will

Hey Hey! Christmas time already! Thank you Townsend!

(PS hopefully available to those downloading outside the UK )

Yup, they'll be available to everyone...

Rob

Jolly good - thanks again.

WO-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

SO HERE IT IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS MERRY XMAS! EV'RYBODY'S HAVIN' FUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOK TO THE FUTURE NOW

IT'S ONLY JUST BEGUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!

Fantastic News!

Cool. Looking forward to these.

Great news. Thanks all

- but I do hope that you don't need to 'open an account' in order to get these tracks...

Don't you just hate that?!

Excellent news Rob. Thank you.

looking forward to the tracks.

The link is up

http://www.townsend-records.co.uk/artist.php?artist=John+Foxx

Just enter your email address in the top right hand corner

Brian

Cool!

I knew it wouldn't be just a simple case of 'click here to download'.

Enjoying the tracks though - especially 'Impossible' which has been significantly improved.
Excellent work, Jori, and thanks to everyone involved in this. Much appreciated.

If these are 'free' (hmmm...) then presumably we are 'free' to share them?

Not so keen on 'Imposssible' (for me, the original can't be beaten), but Neuro Video makes a nice alternative.

Many thanks to everyone involved!

Typically, I think the opposite.

I like both.

The only parts of the original remaining are the vocals.

Nice alternative versions

Wow - Two new mixes to enjoy!

Both are pretty good variations I reckon.

Thanks to John & Jori for making these
available.

Does make me wonder though why they weren't
perhaps included on Glimmer ?

No complaints from me though....

A very nice gesture indeed! I like both of them
Made me think, what would be the result if John would donate a track for a Acidplanet contest?

Thanks to those responsible for the 2 tracks!
fons

I like both, but 'Impossible' has more to 'say' musically for me. It fits more with the original feel of the lyric, although not as well as the album version.
Thanks to all involved for these.

1. They're not the 'best' of John Foxx

2. Then they wouldn't be a special gift/thank you thingie

3. They weren't done then

Loads of reasons...

The only thing that I find a little irritating is that the actual download links themselves aren't on the JF homepage at Townsend, thus bypassing the need to 'register' at the site and go to a 'special page'.

I do hope there's no ulterior motive behind that, and I'm sure it will actually limit the numbers of people who bother.
Easy enough just to email the tracks to one another though, surely?

it's obviously to get you on the Townsend newsletter list but I see no harm in that.
Thanks again.

This kind of remix is what remixes should be like! So many either ruin the song or sound so far away from the original that it's barely recognisable.

These remixes stay true to the original song idea and structure, yet bring in something new that is both fitting with the idea of the song but offers a suitably different alternative.

Cool, thanks for the downloads! Neither particularly leaps out at me (yet) but I do like Jori very much. Great stuff.

I wasn't sure the first time I heard the remixes, but they have definitely grown on me over the weekend. A first class effort. Thank you to everyone involved in making this happen.

Sorry Alex, have to disagree with you there. In my opinion these Hulkonnen remixes are lazy, unimaginative and bring absolutely nothing new to either song.

When the idea of remixing first became popular in the 1980s, the technology of the day placed limitations on the amount of sampling time available so as a consequence an awful lot of remixes from that time consisted of little more than one of two vocal phrases over an 8 bar loop repeated over and over again. These remixes are remarkably similar.

Yes, the odd synth part comes in and out but there's hardly any melody, harmony or development - it's all just flat and repetitive and the original chord structures have been done away with and replaced with....well....just a dirge.

Okay, so they're free so we can't complain too much, but a remix really should bring something new and unexpected to a song. These sounds like they were the first attempts of a 12 year old with a "Teach yourself to remix" book and a General Midi Synth module.

I don't doubt that Jori Hulkkonnen might be a nice bloke, but once more he's proved that he's way out of his depth as a songwriter or remixer. An artist of John's stature really ought to be able to find a better collaborator than this.

You're free to disagree with me - I have no problem with that!

I have to say I've only played these once each. So those were my initial impressions. As I have said before, I'm no fan of remixes at all. I elected to give these a chance because they were free, and they were by Jori, and I loved 'Dislocated'. So with that in mind, I knew there would be elements I liked.

That said, I hope this isn't the first of more remixes. I don't see John as a 'remix' artist and certainly wouldn't buy an album of remixes.

Still playing the new remixes, even though im not a fan of remixes either. They maybe not as good as 'Dislocated', but imo better than the remixes of 'Dislocated'. So i can see some improvement in Jori's output with John overall.

Don't forget that only one each of the Dislocated and Never Let Me Go remixes is done by Jori...

Interesting comments though - I think he's a genius and a really inspiring example of the innovative music coming out of Scandinavia at the moment

Wo-hoo! Christmas presents! Great stuff!

I'm enjoying these and would be quite happy to see a Foxx remix album - as long as the artists and their mixes are interesting.

Oh, I dunno. If I were putting that kind of project together, let's see... I'd invite Ladytron, Adult, Andrea Parker, some dubstep producers (Burial, Distance, Headhunter), Broadcast, Stereolab, Pole, Ellen Allien, maybe some of the Morr/City Centre Offices/karaoke kalk artists like Ulrich Schnauss or Donna Regina, and some of the dance/punk/electronic bands like the Klaxons, getting a wide variety of electronic music styles in there. I'd find it interesting, and it'd get more press coverage than another live-in-studio collection of rererecorded songs.

Thanks to all who made these free downloads possible. They are a treat for the loyal John Foxx fan, but is Townsend promoting them in any other way to attract those who are as yet uninitiated?
I agree — and I'm known to be not particularly fond of remixes. I like Steve's suggestions for some of the artists who could lend a hand, and from a marketing perspective I fully agree with his conclusion,
High-profile remixes are more likely to reach a new audience and spark renewed journalistic interest in John Foxx's career in a way that the recent glut of all-too-similar recordings and repurposes/repackages saturating the market as placeholders until a full album of previously unheard, original material straggles its way out of the studio next year (she says with breath bated and fingers crossed) will not.

Something in the ballpark of Soft Cell's "Heat: the Remixes" would be great!

Absolutely! What a kick-a*s album that is! really opens up the songs to a contemporary audience.
It's so NOT about whether we, the dedicated hardcore fans, actually LIKE these remixes or not. We are all too familiar with the originals to have a really objective opinion.

Projects like this turn that attitude on its head and encourage everyone to look at John's career the other way up.

Incidentally Mark, do you have 'Soft Love' - the Terence Higgins charity cover versions album?

Of the two - I'm really hooked on the remix of Neuro Video - a bit mid-90s Metroplex is no bad thing.