Watt's The Frequency's Zenith?

Today's selection is an hour-long tribute to bartender, auto mechanic and master of the 12" edit, Joseph Watt.

My first experience of Joseph's work was in 1985, buying either the 7" double pack of What's Your Problem? by Blancmange or the import 12" of Master And Servant by Depeche Mode, both of which contained examples of his handiwork.

I soon discovered his vast body of work with Art Maharg as Razormaid, though much of it was out of my reach until the early 2000s, when it became available online via various music blogs.

Since then, I've amassed over a hundred different Joseph Watt edits and remixes, spanning 1983 to 1993 and covering a wide range of genres, but favouring the alternative and electronic pop music of my teens.

In pulling together this selection and post, I discovered a fascinating article-cum-interview with Joseph from 2014 on the Red Bull Music Academy website of all places. It's well worth a read, especially if you have an interest in Razormaid and the US subscription-only remix services that proliferated in the 1980s, but also as an inspirational tale of serendipitous and seismic career changes.

"Where did you come from? 

Are you like some big hotshot DJ from Miami or Paris?’"

They said I was like this enigma. 

I’d just say, 

"What do you mean?

I just came over from my apartment on 17th Street"

I've selected and sequenced nine personal favourites from Joseph's catalogue, some commercially released, some included on the numerous Razormaid 12" singles and compilations from the 1980s and 1990s.

The aforementioned remix of Depeche Mode is present, Blancmange too, though instead of That's Love That It Is from the What's Your Problem? 7", I've gone for Game Above My Head, a stunning extended remix that appeared on the follow up 7" double pack, Lose Your Love.

I offer apologies to anyone led by the post title into thinking there might be some R.E.M. here as well. Not so, but the rest of the mixtape, from Sparks to Erasure, Bronski Beat to Vicious Pink, O.M.D. to Talking Heads and ending with Electronic, is pretty heavyweight compensation. 

1) Burning Down The House (Razormaid Mix): Talking Heads (1987)

2) Music That You Can Dance To (Razormaid! Edit): Sparks (1990)

3) Smalltown Boy (Razormaid Mix): Bronski Beat (1984)

4) Game Above My Head (U.S. Extended Remix Version): Blancmange (1983)

5) Tesla Girls (Razormaid Mix): O.M.D. (1992)

6) Master And Servant (US Black & Blue Version) (Edited By Joseph Watt): Depeche Mode (1984)

7) Cccan't You See... ('89 Mix By Razormaid aka Art Maharg & Joseph Watt): Vicious Pink (1989)

8) Sometimes (Extended Mix By Rico Conning) (Edited By Joseph Watt): Erasure (1987)

9) Getting Away With It (Digital Mix): Electronic (1992)

1983: That's Love, That It Is EP (USA 12" single): 4

1984: Master And Servant EP (USA 12" single): 6

1987: Sometimes EP (USA 12" single): 8

1988: Class X One: 1

1989: Razormaid's 4th Anniversary Issue: The Atrocity Exhibition: 7

1990: Prehistoric Razormaid!: 2

1992: The Best Of... This Is Only A Test!: 3, 9

1992: Razormaid! 7th Anniversary Box Set: 5

Watt's The Frequency's Zenith? (1:02:43) (GD) (M)

Further listening:

Bevans Above! (Bert Bevans, November 2021)

L'art De La Discothèque, Volume 1 & Volume 2 (François Kevorkian, May-June 2025)

WareHouse (Martyn Ware, May 2025)

Please Sir, I Want Some More

Following Blancmange's shock exit from the first round of the Imaginary Compilation Album World Cup earlier this week at The Vinyl Villain, I feel it is my moral duty to present another selection by way of compensation.

This is a companion piece of sorts to Just Desserts, the CD-R compilation I put together in July 2005 and featured in a Blancmange post earlier this year. Today's selection follows a similar path of presenting 12" singles, remixes and edits. Many of the same songs pop up, albeit in different versions. 

 

Lose Your Love was the penultimate single from “phase 1” of Blancmange. I bought the 7" double pack single at the time as it included the Joseph Watt (Razormaid) remixes of That's Love That It Is - featured here - and Game Above My Head. I bought a secondhand copy of the 12" single a few years later, with an extended version which runs to over ten minutes. The version opening this selection is a shorter remix from the Canadian promo 12" single.

 

Likewise, the Instrumental/Dub Version of Blind Vision appeared on the USA promo 12" single; on my copy, this was swapped out for the full length version of Waves.

 

The literally titled Side Two is the B-side of the preceding single What's Your Problem? and is an extended, re-recorded version of Believe You Me album track 22339.  

I've included one non-1980s version, a re-edit of Waves from 2010 by Berlin-based Gloyn, which takes a bit of getting used to but is a nice way to bring things to a close.

 

Blancmange reformed in 2011, although Stephen Luscombe left shortly after for health reasons. Neil Arthur has continued to regularly release albums since. Blancmange's (by my count) 14th post-reformation album, Private View, will be released on London Records on 30th September, almost exactly 40 years to the day since their debut, Happy Families. 

 

I'm seeing Blancmange live in concert for the first time the following week in Stroud, along with regular blogosphere commenter and nearly neighbour Mike, which I'm really looking forward to. Expect a "phase 2" Blancmange selection before then.

1) Lose Your Love (This Club Mix By John Luongo & Victor Flores) (1985)

2) Feel Me (Dub Version By Mike Howlett) (1982)

3) Vishnu (Full Length Version By John Luongo) (1983)

4) Blind Vision (Instrumental/Dub Version By John Luongo) (1983)

5) What's Your Problem? (Razormaid Mix By Joseph Watt) (1986)

6) Side Two (Extended Version By Neil Arthur & John Williams) (1985)

7) That's Love, That It Is (U.S. Extended Remix Version By Joseph Watt) (1983)

8) Don't Tell Me (U.S. Dance Remix By Mark Kamins) (1984)

9) I Can See It (Single Remix By Greg Walsh) (1986)

10) Living On The Ceiling (Album Remix By Dennis Weinreich) (1982)

11) Waves (Extended Edit By Gloyn) (2010)

Please Sir, I Want Some More (1:10:30) (GD) (M)

Moving Violations

Celebrating Andy 'Fletch' Fletcher of Depeche Mode, 8th July 1961 to 26th May 2022.

 

Without this blog becoming a musical obituary, I couldn't let more sad news this week pass with no comment or tribute. Last August, I wrote about seeing Depeche Mode live in concert at the age of 15, the first gig I'd ever been to. 

I'm going to let the music pretty much speak for itself today. This selection features both sides of a mixtape that I compiled 20th October 1990. By no means the first Depeche Mode compilation cassette I did, this one features a slew of remixes by François Kevorkian, Flood, Daniel Miller, The Beatmasters, Phil Harding, Tim Simenon, The Beloved, as well as relatively rarer (at the time) US mixes by Joseph Watt, Bert Bevans and Robert Margouleff.

 

A number of these are vinyl rips, so apologies for the variable audio quality.

 

Thanks, Fletch, you did good.

 

Side One

1) Route 66 (Remixed By The Beatmasters) (Cover of Nat King Cole & The King Cole Trio) (1987)

2) Sea Of Sin (Sensoria) (Remix By François Kevorkian & Alan Friedman) (1990)

3) A Question Of Lust (Remix By Flood) (1986)

4) World In My Eyes (Mode To Joy) (Remix By The Beloved) (1990)

5) Fly On The Windscreen (Death Mix By Gareth Jones) (1985)

6) Enjoy The Silence (The Quad: Final Edit By Tim Simenon) (1990)

7) The Things You Said (Album Version) (1987)

8) Nothing (Album Version) (1987)

9) A Question Of Time (Remix By Phil Harding) (1986)

 

Side Two

1) Behind The Wheel (Beatmasters Mix) (1987)

2) But Not Tonight (U.S. Extended Mix By Robert Margouleff) (1986)

3) Pleasure, Little Treasure (Glitter Mix By Depeche Mode & Dave Bascombe) (1987)

4) Get The Balance Right! (Combination Mix By Daniel Miller & Depeche Mode) (Cold End) (1983)

5) Flexible (Pre-Deportation Mix By Bert Bevans) (1985)

6) (Set Me Free) Remotivate Me (12" Mix) (Edited By Joseph Watt) (1984)

7) Dangerous (Sensual Mix By Flood) (1989)

 

Side One (46:02) (KF) (Mega)

Side Two (45:38) (KF) (Mega)