THE REBIRTH OF SLICK......

There comes a time in one's life where they need to cut the "excess baggage" and "re-focus" as it were. Well, the Culture Shock Crew found ourselves engaged in a whole variety of production projects and responsibilities, changes and evolutions, both professional and personal that kept us away. However, just like the Phoenix of old, we've risen from the ashes and are back, bigger and better than ever. We understand your frustration at the lack of quality remixes at affordable rates out there, so we've come back with releases that should knock your socks off and welcome you back with shock to your dancefloor.

2007 saw us expanding our musical palate even further, with issues such as Rock Shock Volume 1, 80's vs Y2K Vol's 1 & 2, 90's Shock Vol 1, Mashups Vol's 1 & 2 and Volumes 3 & 4 of our increasingly popular Retro Shock offering.

2008 promises to be the year of the trilogy, with Mashups Vol 3, 80's vs Y2K Vol 3, Rock Shock Vol 3 & 90's Shock Vol 3 all slated for release! Those issues plus Culture Shock Vol 22, Retro Shock Vol 6 & a few other surprises will make this one of our biggest years ever!

We now have an online store up-and-running. Please click here to buy our releases directly at a significant discount!

Sincerely,
The Culture Shock Crew

PS - Check us out on Myspace!

ABOUT CULTURE SHOCK

We've come a long way since the simpler days of 80s alternative synth-pop bands ... Now, there are so many styles of music to choose from when it comes to the "alternative" music scene: indie, electro, dance-punk, underground, etc. You get the picture. This can be particularly distressing for consumers, and is even more of a hindrance to the nightclub disc jockey.

But then came Culture Shock.

Culture Shock was formed out of the need for "mix-friendly" versions of alternative radio songs that we all know and love so much, yet cannot or will not play in a nightclub because they are, by definition, not "danceable" or "mixable." Culture Shock has solved this dilemma.

We have, in effect, given these many talented artists another way to promote their songs. Mix show and club DJs are now playing songs by these artists that they probably wouldn't have normally.

So, sit back and let us worry about the remixing part-- you folks just go out there and play the songs on your mix shows and in your nightclubs!

CULTURE SHOCK FAQ (In Progress)

Production Notes:

DONT YOU (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds:
Oh come on, we all know when you hear this song you throw your fist in the air Judd Nelson-style and think about what it's like to be an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal. Admit it. And while you're at it, admit that this is one of THE most iconic tunes of the 80's (even if Jim Kerr hates it). As such, we approached this one with extra care and a lighter touch. We dug out our 12 inch with the long version and took our musical scalpel to it. We even researched the original synthesizer used in this one (an Oberheim*, thank you very much) and re-created some of the synth line. The result is a faithful re-introduction to this classic tune. 111 BPM.

PRIDE (In The Name of Love) - U2:
Few have attempted this one. Probably because U2's pre-93 catalog is considered a sort of musical holy ground. You don't dare tread there unless you know what you're doing. But hey - this is the CS Crew we're talking about. We dare go where no one else will. With that in mind, we didn't want to recreate the wheel here, just give the track a new life for a new audience. That primarily involved tempo-mapping for a nice, even beat, with special attention given to keeping Larry's original drum sound. Add to that an extended intro & outro for mixing, and you have a track that any U2 fan would be proud of. 106 BPM.

BE NEAR ME - ABC:
Speaking of The Breakfast Club, 'Be Near Me' was another iconic track that appeared in that Brat Pack flick (though not on the official soundtrack, for some reason). Many from the 80's will remember the Munich Disco Mix being the definitive version for DJ's & dancefloors, so we took that and added a few CS refinements. We gave it a more easily mixable intro & outro, as well as adding back a few extra vocal elements & pieces from the instrumental version. In the end you get the ultimate tribute to ABC at a clean 125 BPM.

WHAT'S ON YOUR MIND (Pure Energy) - Information Society:
The Culture Shock crew prides itself on having a bit of nerd blood flowing through our veins. Not enough to dress up as a Cylon for Halloween, but certainly enough to know what a Cylon is. That inner nerd always became a wee bit giddy when we'd hear this track, what with that sample of Leonard Nimoy's voice saying 'Pure Energy' over and over again. Regular dancefloor dwellers love this baby because it's yet another iconic stomper that just celebrated its 20th birthday, and is none the worse for wear. DJ's that were around clubs at the time know that the original 12 inch had some pretty solid remixes already, so we incorporated the strongest elements of those here. Our nerd blood also compelled us to incorporate a few more Mr Spock moments. In the end you've got a track that will satisfy both beauty and the geek. 118 BPM.

Production Notes:

CRASH N BURN VICTIMS - Moving Units: One of our favorite bands that emerged from the disco-punk scene in 2003/04, Moving Units came back swinging this year with their Hexes for Exes album. We had already recruited one of their tracks for our post-punk mix a few months ago, but thought they needed the proper CS buff and sheen. We could tell lead singer Blake Miller's recent dive into the DJ world had rubbed off on his band, as nearly every song was a dancefloor stomper. In the end, we chose 'Crash N Burn Victims' as our test case, and gave it a once over. You now have an easily mixed intro and outro, as well as extra handclaps to turn any dancefloor into a dance orgy. 126 BPM.

WRITTEN IN BLOOD - She Wants Revenge: SWR aren't CS virgins either, as we'd visited the remix treatment on tracks from their self-titled debut. And much like Moving Units, these guys have a DJ background that heavily influences their musical output. So what do you do when a band already has the dancefloor in mind? Polish, polish, polish. We tidied and tightened this track with our less-is-more approach, and in the end you have a track that moves Goths as well as any Top 40 crowd. 144 BPM.

SHADOWPLAY - The Killers: This one was a tough call. We'd be lying if we said we loved this band's recent output as much as Hot Fuss. Not that they haven't caught our ear here and there since, but HF had us at hello and didn't let go for several years. Mix that with a cover of a band we hold as nigh untouchable, and well, we didn't have high expectations (not that the connection didn't make sense, after all the band named themselves after a fictional band in a New Order video). So imagine our surprise when this baby came out sounding great!  We did a lot of tweaking and tightening here, fiddling with the drums as well as the synths & vocals. In the end you have a track that even Bernard Sumner might dance to. 145 BPM.

Production Notes:

Eurythmics - SWEET DREAMS (Are Made of This): This one's a classic. Who can hear the opening synth line of this song and resist the siren's call to run to the dancefloor? No one we know. In fact, this track has received a lot of attention from remixers as a result. A few of those mixes were pretty strong on their own, so this was a case of remixing a remix. We took the strongest elements, scrapped the duds, added a few goodies of our own and ended up with what we believe is the last word on this song. Play it and watch your dancefloor struggle with crowd control. 126 BPM.

The Cure - THE WALK: Very few have touched this one, which has always surprised us. Sure, there have been a few passes at this over the years - the 'Everything' mix that came as on some versions of the Closer 12", and just recently the 'Infusion' mix that was issed on Future Retro. But none of those gave it the facelift we felt it deserved, so we gave it that extra Culture Shock sheen.  There are a lot of additions in this mix - if you listen closely enough - including a few beats appropriated from some of our favourite Australians (discerning ears will reveal who). A clean 130 BPM for all The Cure fans in your life.

The Clash - ROCK THE CASBAH: This has been a dancefloor staple ever since Combat Rock hit record store shelves way back in '82. In fact, if you can believe it, it is the only Clash song to have reached the Top 10 in the US. Of course, since then we've had to live with a myriad of bad covers & samples (remember Will Smith's Will2K? Yeah, we've tried to forget too). We thought it was time we return some dignity to this fine track, so we went into archival mode. Thankfully, The Clash have always been fond of the twelve inch single, so there were plenty of extended & alternate versions of this song floating around to snag bits & bobs from. Add to that the usual Culture Shock refinements, and you're ready to let that raga drop at 130 BPM

Production Notes:

GENIUS OF LOVE – Tom Tom Club: Once again, the Rhythm Scholar comes here and turns this Tina Weymouth track into a "Bits and Pieces" pseudo-medley. His edits are sharp, and timing impeccable. What you get is a mix that works particularly well in today's Ritalin-addled clientele. Which leads us to:

ONCE IN A LIFETIME – Talking Heads: It's funny that we did a Tom Tom Club track, because we also ended up doing a Talking Heads track as well. (The LCD Soundsystem of the late-70's thru mid-80's). A lot of attention is paid to "Burning Down the House", but people forget that Talking Heads had MANY hits during their long career, before David Byrne went nuts. (No disrespect meant to Dave and/or Nonesuch Records – we love you guys…). But one would HAVE to be nuts to come up with the concept of this funky stomper! We suppose that's why people stayed away from this track for so long – it's kinda a pain in the ass to mix because it swings so much. However, our vision was "Same as it ever was" and we knocked it out. What you get in the end is a mix that stays true to the original, but yet ads just enough added percussion to make it a bit more defined. Perfect for any "Retro Night". 122 BPM.

THE REFLEX – Duran Duran: Quick quiz:

The Reflex is:

A Lonely Child

In Charge Of Finding Treasure in the Dark

A Game

All of the above

If you answered "D", then there's no excuse for you to not own a legit copy of Retro Shock 4. Anyhow about this remix:

We considered putting The Rhythm Scholar and DJ Perry in a cagematch to see who would get the "honor" of remixing this mess of a song, but in the end, DJ Perry had preliminary mix already done, so we used it as a basis to start. If any of you DD fans out there know, aside from the lyrics to this song making no sense, this song is choppy and can be potentially devastating to a dancefloor. No more. We fixed this mess of a track and now you can play it and let even the most hardcore Duran squared fan appreciate that we still stayed true to the original yet extended it enough to make it work. 127 BPM. Why-e-eye-e-eye-don't you playyyy it?

JUST LIKE HEAVEN – The Cure: Another one of those songs that is truly an anthem of emotional goodness; a tribute to the moody yet poppy side of the 80's. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me was one of The Cure's most memorable albums. That said, this song never really got the remix deserved. We mean, yeah, the label did a remix where they brought the drums out a bit, and then later did a half-time version in the "Mixed Up" series, but there was never a DJ-Friendly version that stayed true to the original. Can you find a more tempting target for the CS Crew?

We knew we needed to find a way to re-create the drums. Ok – 3 of us were drummers in bands back in the 80's, so that'd be easy…we also needed to bring the synths out – check. We also wanted add a "lil' sumpin; sumpin'" – so when you get the final DJ mix, you end up with something familiar yet new. Play it and kiss your girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband. I assure you, it'll get the floor going….

Production Notes:

COMING SOON!

Production Notes:

COMING SOON!

Production Notes:

For anyone that interacts with the Culture Shock Crew, you’d know that we were still reeling from doing the first Rock Shock issue by the time we even got around to producing Vol. 2. As we’ve said before, this is single-handedly the most difficult and labor-intensive series out there. The research, production, polishing, reviewing and re-mixing that takes place is crazy.

At Culture Shock, we call this “Tuesday”. :)

So – without further delay, lets spill the beans on some of the tracks on this issue:

LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL – The Cars: We don’t think we’ll ever be happy with any mix we’d do on this track. I mean, Rick Ocasek had strong influences on the production directions of this release, so for us to attempt to re-create it would be, well, problematic at best. So what can we do? Well, we broke a little bit away from our remix mantra when it comes to classics and went “More is More”. We added beats. We added synths. We re-arranged, we re-mastered, we EQed. We fought, we tussled. In the end, we have a mix you won’t forget. Chiggity- Check it at 111 BPM.

CONNECTION – Elastica: This is another one of those tracks but may seem out of place on a Hair Band release, but hold on – this song rocks, it was in a Beer commercial, and it has chicks – how much more true to “Rock” can you get? This track was one of those songs that people considered “Brilliant Production” but was really bullshit usage of ghetto equipment in a crappy studio. (Could they compress this track any more?) So – what could we do to rectify this? We felt that we needed to bring the drums and the sawtooth synth back up in the mix, so using our bag of tricks we did just that. Add some re-arrangement for DJ-Friendliness and some re-EQing and you end up with a mix that quite literally sounds better than the original. 122 BPM for your dancefloor usage.

ROUND AND ROUND – Ratt: This mix came out great. That’s all we can say. Master tracks and all – we  bukakke’d this track with remix love to make it stay true to the original in a natural, DJ-friendly way. Not much to say except this is the first and last mix you will need of this song.

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN –Europe: Yeah yeah yeah  - we here at CS are
fully aware of the “Kitsch Factor” surrounding this song –all the more reason to play it. In fact, we like this cheesey song so much, one of us has it for their cell ringtone, but we won’t say who it is (Don’t worry, Lex.) Anyhow, we have this remix, but what exactly did we do? Well, this is more a complex answer than you think. Suffice it to say that we added new percussion and gated synth to make the mix more dramatic. We also went back to the source tracks and brought out the orchestrations a bit to make this remix stay true to this talented Sweedish Supergroups’ roots. Play it only under hairspray supervision, aight?

 

Production Notes:

ICKY THUMP - The White Stripes: Oh man. This remix nearly killed us. Seriously, in the middle of the mixing process we very nearly drove to Meg White's house to give her drumming lessons. We love ya Meg, but PLEASE PICK A TEMPO. With all that bitching out of the way, you can probably guess the biggest change we made here. We cleaned up that 'all over' drumming & made a few more tweaks here and there. It now slides in at a beautiful 98 BPM.

PHANTOM - Justice: We've been keeping an eye on these French househeads for quite a while, and this is their first entry in the CS series. We're all francophiles from our decade-long obsession with Daft Punk, so it was nice to see France getting back into the action. This was a strong track to start with, we just gave it a little TLC with an easily mixable intro & outro. 118 BPM.

THE HEINRICH MANEUVER - Interpol: Since most of us here at Culture Shock started our musical lives (and for a few of us, our actual lives) in the 80's, we have a soft spot for this Brooklyn post-punk outfit. They've made their fair share of appearances on CS before, and with the release of their third album we knew we'd be busting out our black ties & 3-piece suits. This track had a very similar rhythm & flow to 'Slow Hands', so we actually picked up a few bits from a previous remix & worked them into this mix. Couple that with a few layering tricks & tweaks and you end up with this fabulous track at 137 BPM.

YOUNG FOLKS - Peter, Bjorn & John: Who would have thought a folk band from Stockholm with a song centered around whistling would take off like this? They did, so we took notice and decided to tackle this song with our usual brand of je ne sais quoi. We loved the sound of the drums here, so we kept that but evened things out with some tempo mapping. You can now dance with all the other young folks at a steady 138 BPM.

Production Notes:

This is a mix series. The first one deals in the more rhythmic-leaning alternative songs of the mid-90's with a little bit of 90's retro thrown in for flavor - hence the name. If you have a retro night or need something to play early, this is for you. Mixed seamlessly back-to-back and separated by tracks, this CD will bring back some good memories of some great music from that time.

Use Alternative Routes #2 - Indie Rock and Electroclash is a journey to the more Indie-Rock and underground side of the "Alternative" scene, with cutting-edge music. Also mixed by "Aaron the Pimp', this 80-minute mix takes you to where only the coolest of "alternative" clubs go. Non-stop mixing without the commercial B.S.. Listen and enjoy.

Volume 3 follows in the tradition of Volume 2 with a mix of Indie Dance-Punk, Uptempo Dance & Synthpop.