Oliver: LFO - Tan Ta Ra [Moby Remix] (21 December 1991)

There's nothing worse in pop music than the redundant mix.  As the years have gone by, I've become more receptive to "reimaginings" of tracks; remixes which take the listener off into completely new worlds with tracks you thought you knew.  I wasn't an immediate convert to these things in my youth.  I remember being bowled over by the New Order song, Regret when it came out in 1993. I liked it so much that I bought the 12" version of it, as I didn't have a CD player at the time.  Unfortunately, the radio edit wasn't on there, so the two versions out of four which didn't include the vocals passed me by in a glaze of boredom.  But I'd always back complete reinvention over simple audio boosting.

Moby's remix of Leeds electronic duo LFO's track, Tan Ta Ra, falls somewhere in the middle.  The original, as heard on their debut album, Frequencies, is quite ambient and full of space despite the minimalist soundscape.  It's electro dance for the head, quite meditative and no floor filler.  It put me in mind of a minimalist electro act I heard Peel play during my mixtape year of 2002 called Meta 83
and his track, Metalgroove.
Commissioned to do a remix for LFO's What is House EP, Moby injects a blast of energy but with enough subtlety to hold the interest of those who would have got into the original.  There's a vocal sample ("Are we doing it?"), periodic, Marioland keyboards and a constant vibration which sounds like a distilled energy source, all giving the effect of a re-decoration rather than a reimagining, but it works at creating an undeniable ear worm.



The original.  Moby's just wins out, doesn't it?

Videos courtesy of Indiedancepop (Moby) and LFO -Topic (LFO).