80s Without A Face: this is Jesstastic Jess Harvell writing in the Village Voice about DJ Sammy. Trancebag versions of rock classics are, as Jess implies, nothing new – I think the best thing about them is how they point up what good songs a lot of the originals are, by coolly stripping out all the creaky or rubbish or indulgent things about them – the kewl rockin’ drawl, the feeble verses, the solos. “Boys Of Summer” was a good, discoid song anyway, so Sammy keeps it all. But Scooter for instance realised that the only great thing about “The Logical Song” was its opening hook, and Madonna’s “American Pie” (to jump genres here) jettisons half the verses and all the passion and almost works. It’s a similar reductive alchemy as birthed hip-hop – canonisation by function, the only kind that matters.
(PS congratulations Jess!)