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www.playlouder.com
November 2005
LT
A less enticing offering from the decade of glum miners and the lizard lady
is this collection of remixes and rarities from the Human League. They were
a band whose pop brilliance lay in their ability to craft pop gold out of
electronica's glassy minimalism, so the extended versions featured here
never really work. So an 'album version' of 'Being Boiled' is, well,
over-boiled; while the extended dance mix of 'Don't You Want Me' drags one
of their finest simple pop records into tedium, likewise an extended version
of 'Together In Electric Dreams' is similarly ruinous.
www.2-4-7-music.com
November 2005
Alan Sergeant
The gods honest truth of the matter is we can’t get enough the eighties, can
we? And with the exception of exhuming Falco, Baltimora, Michael Hutchence,
Paula Yates, Divine and Stuart Adamson and putting them in a supergroup of
dead 80s icons fronted by Holly Johnson we can’t do much more than we are
doing in dragging it kicking and screaming into the new millennium. Why do
we do it? Why do bears shit and moonwalk in woods? It’s part of the human
condition. When we’ve exhausted our own energy reserves we go back and find
another stock to plunder. When Brit Pop of the mid-nineties raided the tomb
of 60s London, it came back with a ready-made plan and vision replete with
blazers and muttonchops. It’s only natural in an era of instant messaging,
instant coffee, instant passports, instant translations, instant wealth and
instant meals that we seek an instant solution to a no less instant loss of
direction. And short of being able to whack it in the microwave and put it
on full for 30 seconds this is what the eighties provides: a clearer vision
– a workplan. And this autumn sees the release of the latest workplan for
work-shy listeners: the Human League’s
‘Original Remixes and Rarities’ –
a blissfully enjoyable rifle through the underwear of 80s synth-pop
featuring a full 75 minutes of bleeping, blooping, buzzing mayhem. 12”
extended remixes of ‘The Sound Of The Crowd’, ‘Don't You Want Me’, ‘Mirror
Man’, ‘(Keep Feeling) Fascination’, ‘Electric Dreams’, ‘The Lebanon’ plus
bright and eager b-sides like ‘Hard Times’, ‘Total Panic’ and’ Non-Stop’.
In an era when the 12”extended
remix largely consisted of a smidgen of stuttering, acapella and a series of
interminable instrumental passages Human League were a rarity, providing
genuinely alternative listening of ideas cut ordinarily to the brief
demanded by the charts. This is the Human League divested of the pop gloss
and anticipating the sophisticated New York clubsound of Madonna and Benitez
by years.
Standout moment: ‘Don’t You Want
Me’ Extended Dance Mix. Proof that Oakey and Co scored ‘Holiday’ and
‘Borderline’ as far back as 1981.
****
www.barcodezine.com
November 2005
You can always tell when
Christmas is approaching, because all the big retro-eighties bands get their
retrospectives ready for the festive season. EMI has been particularly busy
this year – but I’m not complaining – I grew up with this stuff and it will
always remain fonldy etched in my memory.
Granted, synthesiser pop doesn’t
always sound as futuristic and complimentary today as it did 25 years ago,
but The Human League are one of the few exceptions. This is likely because
they didn’t use synthesisers in the same way as prog-rock bands first did,
but they experimented with the new analogue technology almost as soon as
they stumbled upon it – and that ethos – if nothing else still carries
through today.Then of course there is the nostalgia factor, and Original
Remixes & Rarities is dripping with it, right from the opening album
version of Being Boiled and 12” Version of The Sound Of The Crowd
– the production is particularly inventive on this track depsite the
technological limitations of the era - both tracks still sound like
pre-eighties, alternative electro-pop.
Yet it should be remembered that
this album features remixes & rarities, therefore many tracks do not
necessarily have as much appeal as the instantly catchy singles. The
renowned Don’t You
Want me (Special Extended Dance Mix)
is very slow and plodding at 7:29 minutes, as is one of my favourite League
tracks, Life On Your
Own. Then of course,
with increasing success, Oakey and Co’s later tracks became increasingly
less experimental and more commercially inclined.(Keep
Feeling) Fascination (Improvisation)
sounds very basic, with very annoying repetitively sequenced parts – the
birth of the sequencer certainly contributed to some truly horrible cut and
paste experiments.
The best tracks for me include
the very early opening tracks, and the dirgy, guitar-driven
The Lebanon (12” Extended),
and Human (Extended
Version), which is a
simply timeless track that will always sound great. This time, songwriting
pretty much conquers all. Lowlights include some rather miserable B-sides,
such as Hard Times
(Love Action B-Side),
and Non-Stop (Open
Your Heart B-Side)...
in fact pretty much all of the B-sides featured on this 14-track compilation
are poor.
If you’re looking for Human
League revisted, stick to an everyday compilation, there are enough of them
around. Original
Remixes & Rarities is
for those who are looking to plug some gaps in their collection and is
likely appeal to collectors first and foremost.
www.clubbingmagazine.com
2005
CA
In a time where electro is having its
renaissance on the dance floor as something new and fresh, I have to say
nothing compares to the original pioneers of electronic music. In the early
80´England was the main power behind new wave, new romantic and electro pop
music and Philip Oakey, Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were behind some of
the most outstanding music of the era in the form of The Human League. The
Human League has over many years influenced the club music that we know
today and on this compilation some of the rare and hard to find remixes,
only 12” releases and b-sides can be found; “Being Boiled” (their first
release) “Hard Times”, “Sound Of The Crowed”,“Non-Stop”, “Mirror Man”,
“Fascination”, “Human” and “The Lebanon”. Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh
left The Human League after the first two albums and formed BEF (British
Electric Foundation) and their own band Heaven 17.
7/10
Mixmag January 2006
Ralph Moore
Armand , Moby , Mylo
and Felix da Housecat all owe a debt to the synthesiser hooks (and outfits)
of Human League . If Kraftwerk embody Germanys unique , robotic prototype
take on techno - and their robotic influence can never be underestimated -
then Sheffield outfit Human League picked up the baton , adding studio
boffins , a waitress or two from a cocktail bar and a songwriter called Phil
Oakey who understood the transcendental power of pop music . Still very much
alive (they ripped Homelands to shreds this year) , this new collection sums
up why . From proto-classic `Being Boiled` to the political pop of `The
Lebanon` , these mixes stretch and morph the original tracks to six-minute
marathons .
4/5
www.remembertheeighties.com
March 2006
Craig Martin
A new album by the Human League has been something of a rarity in recent
times, with only a sparse three studio albums hitting the shelves in the
last fifteen or so years, but when they do arrive the group certainly
continues to deliver. The good news is that this compilation provides a good
stopgap while fans can continue to look forward to some new studio material,
as this CD offers much more than the standard 'Greatest Hits' package.
This 14-track re-mastered compilation, chronicles well the first half of the
group's career, with remixed 12" tracks taken from their first half-dozen
albums, from 1979's 'Reproduction' and up to and including 1986's 'Crash'.
There are also a few other rarities thrown into the mix. Depite not being a
huge fan of remixes, the tracks contained here have been handled with care
and remain interesting and pretty faithful to the originals, without going
off on too many tangents. It was encouraging to see that the point was made
in calling this compilation 'original remixes' rather than 'remixes', as we
may have ended up with an entirely different package, had a DJ been allowed
to run loose in 2006 with these tracks... enough said!
Most of the major hits are here in their 12" form, including 'Don't You Want
Me', 'Mirror Man', '(Keep Feeling) Fascination' and 'Human'. The ever catchy
and popular, 'Together in Electric Dreams' (strictly not a Human League
track, but the solo venture by Phil Oakey) seamlessly fits well into this
package. Included is a complete version of the well-liked 'The Sound of the
Crowd' (which not surprising, is a mainstay of their live set) as well as a
welcome inclusion of 'You Remind Me of Gold', which was originally the
B-side of 'Mirror Man' and makes it's CD debut here. One minor gripe with
the group's career spanning well over 25 years and 9 albums is that there
must still be some unreleased tracks in the vaults, and this would have been
an ideal opportunity to showcase these in a compilation like this, but I
suppose you can't have everything!
If you've played your Human League Greatest Hits CD to death, and want to
try something a bit more varied, give this compilation a spin for a very
enjoyable hour or so. At the same time why not try and attend one
www.totalmusicmagazine.com 2005
If, like us, you loved the
League Unlimited Orchestra remix of the mighty Dare (entitled Love And
Dancing), then this is almost certainly going to float your boat as the 12”
remix format suited the League’s angular synth-pop like Keith Harris's right
hand fits the loveable Orville. This will also satisfy all you Human League
train-spotters as the vast majority of the material here has never made it
onto CD before, or only as extra's on single releases. Whether Oakey and Co.
will ever again scale the dizzy musical heights of the Dare era is a moot
point, but this is a timely reminder of just what a great pop band they
really were back in the day.
www.allmusic.com
new
Andy Kellman
A grab bag of extended mixes and otherwise neglected moments from the Human
League's catalog, focusing on
Dare!
through
Romantic?,
Original Remixes & Rarities is a useful
accessory for fans but — unsurprisingly — it's not the least bit essential
for anyone else. Highlights include the extended versions of "Sound of the
Crowd," "Don't You Want Me" (which is also instrumental), "Life on Your Own,"
and "The Lebanon," as well as a dub of "(Keep Feeling) Fascination" and the
relatively irascible version of "Being Boiled" that appeared on
Travelogue
(the only inclusion that dates from the League's pre-coed lineup).
3/5
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