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Album Reviews
Album review: Various Artists – The Art Of The Twelve-Inch (Ztt)
By Marc Samuels | Published on Friday 21 January 2011
At its best, the twelve-inch turned a four minute track into a stately symphony or more experimental reversion, and sometimes both at the same time, and that’s something ZTT excelled in, particularly on the multiple mixes for their three key acts/cash cows – Frankie Goes To Hollywood, The Art Of Noise and Propaganda – all of whom are well represented on the two CDs here.
There are also a scattering of tracks from what you might call the start of the ‘dance music’ era, and although the ‘club culture’ stuff doesn’t always sit too easily next to the more seminal material, following 808 State’s gorgeous ‘Pacific 909’ with AON’s ‘Moments In Love’ is a nice touch, the two tracks being natural relations of each other; six years, but an era apart, the two are rare examples of instrumental electronic dance music’s occasional ability to move the heart as well as the feet.
Elsewhere the lush electro chanson of Anne Pigalle and the proto-electronica of Andrew Poppy provide lesser known gems, whilst rarities from Instinct and Art & Act are divertingly curious.
Then there’s Frankie’s twelve minute ‘Rage Hard (The Young Person’s Guide To The Twelve-Inch)’ – possibly the best twelve-inch remix ever – achieved by simply bolting onto the original track eight minutes of deconstruction and reassembly, with a saucy narration from Pamela Stephenson. It’s post modern but self-aware, with a playfulness at its heart that ran through ZTT’s Dada and Futurist-inspired adventures, courtesy of the fusion of Paul Morley’s conceptualising and Trevor Horn and co’s technological savvy.
In truth Frankie are well covered by rarities here, but not by their best mixes, with the superlative extended versions of ‘Relax’, ‘Two Tribes’ and ‘Welcome To The Pleasure Dome’ absent. Maybe they’ll be on Volume Two, as there are doubtless plenty more treasures (from Grace Jones to Sexus) to plunder from the ZTT vaults.
Lovingly curated and lavishly packaged, at its best, ‘The Art Of The Twelve-Inch’ is simply a reminder of just that. MS
Physical release: 7 Feb
