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Tuesday, 4 May 2010

New Order 'Regret' (Sabres Fast 'N' Throb)


New Order, as a rule, havn't been best served by remixes, some of which are a bit bland and some are totally shocking. When they returned in 1993, with Factory collapsing all around them, they blazed back in with one of their poppiest and best singles, Regret. Andrew Weatherall's Sabres Of Paradise provided two remixes which are the exceptions that prove the New Order remix rule. Both the Slo' n' Lo' and Fast 'n' Throb versions are from the top drawer. Slo' n Lo' strips Regret back and slows it down for a brilliant dub version, but that's not what you're getting here. This is the almost 13 minutes of Fast 'n' Throb.


This is a not-too-distant cousin of Sabres' own Smokebelch, similar production and shared instruments. It's got that Sabres light-switch production style -nothing fades in or out, it's all done with a flick of the switch, instruments dropping in and out suddenly, being brought back in minutes later. It's also, as the remix name says, pretty fast, galloping along, the hi-hats tsk-tsk-tsk-ing away. In a stroke of genius Hooky's bassline and parts of the melody are played on what sounds like a steel drum, popping up throughout. Huge bass synths come and go, backwards cymbals, and one word of Bernard's original vocal 'burning-ng-ng-ng' appears and reappears. On and on it goes, upwards of twelve minutes. Not a second too long. Great stuff. If you havn't got this or heard it, you're in for a treat.

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