Blur - Bang/She's So High (Mindwarp Mutations)

So, this is a random (and official) little release. A pretty good one though. It was a special DJ only promo released in 1992 in the US, just as the band went to the states for their first US tour. Like pretty much everything to do with their Leisure era, the band hated this release. It was actually released by their label without their permission. Not surprisingly then you won't find this on last years Blur 21 package. I'd be very surprised if these mixes ever see a more widespread official release at all seeing as the band did not approve of this promo release. I actually discovered this record exist existed thanks to the most excellent Blur Archive Project. You can find it on the first disc of the Out of The Box collection. An excellent blog that I would recommend all Blur fans visit actually. Anyhow, the five mixes here are of two of the Leisure album singles: She's So High and Bang. Four of the five remixes are of Bang though, so if you don't like that particular song (as many fans don't) then this might not be for you. The remixes are all carried out by the same Mindwarp Mutations alias, although honestly I know absolutely nothing about who remixed this. What I do know though is that they also carried out two more mixes of Bang (Trend mix and Now mix) but they're not on this release. You can find those on the Blur-ti-go ep (or the aforementioned Out of The Box Disc 1). As remixes go, they're not amazing but they're also not entirely terrible. They are very of the era, with your typical rave sounds and house elements. Hardly forward thinking but the original versions were also very of the era too, just in a different style of music. There's worse out there. My favourite two mixes are the MW Big Bang 12" mix and the MW Groove Mix, both of Bang. I do like the other two bang mixes as stand-alone pieces of music, but what reduces my enjoyment of them as remixes is that they don't contain enough traces of the original for me. That is a common trend of remixes from the time though I find. I can't say I care much for the remix of She's So High though - its just a little bit lackluster and doesn't really enhance the song. Overall though this is quite a pleasant release. Not essential by any means but like I said earlier, there's worse out there. It's probably only going to be of any real interest to dedicated 90's dance fan s or Blur completes, but if you have any interest at all then I quite recommend it. Hardly the best thing you'll ever hear but still pretty good.