- "We all want to live in this fantasy past where Larry Levan is playing some Danny Krivit tape edit of some Arthur Russell song that doesn't actually exist." Thus reads the manifesto of Secret Mixes Fixes, an edits label that's been running since 2003, releasing DJ-friendly interpretations of what they call "music that inspired a whole midwestern sound," from Prince to Chris & Cosey to The Fatback Band. Run by someone who calls himself Ronaldo Mystique, this white label operation has spent the past few years putting out edits by Gay Marvine, who also has a sub-label called Bath House Etiquette (a self-described "manual on how to handle gay discos"), and The Fantasy, a duo of two nameless "veteran Detroit DJs," who give us the series' 17th volume.
On the A-side we get two edits of originally beaming disco cuts. "Jerked Out" is The Time's "Jerk Out," but muddied up and stripped of its soaring chorus. "Strong Dub" is Caroline Crawford's "Coming On Strong," but armed with a techno-worthy chug and a crafty drop in the intro that DJs will love. For me, though, the really great stuff is on the B-side. "CH BB" is a bouncy electro tool that snaps for a while and then dissolves into a swirl of backwards drum loops. "Chrome" is a feedback-soaked bit of post-punk, with mangled vocals that call to mind Skinny Puppy. Odd as it is, it's easily mixed—these are DJ tools, after all—making it perfect for the kind of genre collision (or so-called "WTF moment") that originally inspired this intriguing label.
TracklistA1 Strong Dub
A2 Jerked Out
B1 CH BB
B2 Chrome