EVERYTHING IS WRONG - MIXED & REMIXED & REMIXED & MIXED [15 Jan 1996]
UK 2CD, Mute, XLCDSTUMM130
UK 2MC, Mute, XLMCSTUMM130
2CD, Mute/Intercord, MUTE INT 875.805 (XLCDSTUMM130)
NOTE: This EVERYTHING IS WRONG double remix album will not come
out in the USA, unfortunately. "Put together by Moby with
two turntables & a mixer." Each CD is a "non-stop DJ mix
by Evil Ninja Moby". The CD title is unclear, but the
spine reads "EVERYTHING IS WRONG - DJ MIX ALBUM". Produced
and remixed by Moby except as noted in the right margin.
Disc 1 - "Hard Techno, Joyous Anthems & Quiet Ambience" (53:44)
1 1:24 First Cool Hive (Minimal Version)
2 4:57 Feeling So Real (Unashamed Ecstatic Piano Mix)
3 5:14 All That I Need Is To Be Loved (Hard Trance Version)
4 2:49 Bring Back My Happiness (Extended Mix)
5 4:34 Move (Disco Threat Mix)
6 4:00 Everytime You Touch Me (Pure Joy Mix)
7 5:49 Feeling So Real (Westbam Mix) [Westbam]
8 4:49 Into The Blue (Uplifting 4 Beat Mix) [DJ Seduction]
9 3:45 Everytime You Touch Me (NYC Jungle Mix)
10 8:45 Into The Blue (Spiritual Mix)
11 2:24 Anthem (Cinematic Version)
12 5:04 Everything Is Wrong (Quiet Mix)
Disc 2 - "New York Hard House, Groovy Acid & Melodic Trance" (66:10)
1 0:33 Let's Go Free (Reversal Mix)
2 5:59 Hymn (I Believe)
3 3:57 Into The Blue (Voodoo Child Mix)
4 3:38 Everytime You Touch Me (Freestyle Version)
5 1:55 Bring Back My Happiness (Josh Wink Mix) [Josh Wink]
6 5:10 Hymn (Lucky Orgasm Mix)
7 4:23 Everytime You Touch Me (Na Feel Mix)
8 4:02 Feeling So Real (Old Skool Mix)
9 4:12 Hymn (Menacing Mix)
10 3:35 Bring Back My Happiness (Para Los Discos)
11 5:49 Into The Blue (Simple Mix)
12 6:36 Move (Electro Mix)
13 7:06 All That I Need Is To Be Loved (Melodic Mix)
14 9:05 When It's Cold I'd Like To Die (Instrumental)
Since I got my copy of Moby's new double remix album, Everything Is Wrong - DJ Mix Album, it has been playing almost every day. A continuous mix split onto two CDs (or cassettes), it posesses remarkable replay value. The music just flows. Contrast this with the original Everything Is Wrong album, which despite being interesting and having some great tracks, was difficult to listen to repeatedly -- stylistic diversity, the very strength of the album, being the reason. With the original album I didn't have time to get lost in the music, because I would start playing Hymn and find myself in What Love before I knew it. But with its nonstop mixes, this new remix album is an aural delight. Its strength is its listenability, which easily justifies its purchase. And it's a great way to introduce friends to the sound of Moby.
The cover pictures an evilly red-faced Moby, an inverse of
EIW's
cover. "Non-stop DJ mix by Evil Ninja Moby", it boasts. A drawing of
"evil ninja moby" lurks on the back cover next to the track listing.
![[ENM]](../gfx/enm1.gif)
Inside, a whimsical poem accompanies a larger enm illustration, along
with Moby's sometimes distorted ideas of what you can do to make wrong things
better. (For example, the list includes positive things like "be honest",
"be in love with God", "recycle", & "support... any organisation that
does good work", questionable things like "have sex with someone you love"
& "write messages on walls", and absurdities like "get involved in
eco-terrorism", "throw away your car", & "assume that you're wrong".)
It seems the record company released this in order to boost the chart
position of the original album, exploiting some quirk in the oppressive
British chart system. But despite the gimmickry, this release is possibly
the finest collection of Moby's music ever compiled in one place.
The sonic journey begins with First Cool Hive (Minimal Version), a sustained ambient chord accompanied by sporatic percussion sounds. Just as you start to contemplate the piece, Feeling So Real (Unashamed Ecstatic Piano Mix) starts up and you're thrown into a musical world of unbridled joy. This segues into the vivid emotional torment of the "Hard Trance Version" of ATINITBL, previously only available on vinyl. But feelings again rocket up to pure elation in the following tracks, which include the classic Move (Disco Threat Mix) and euphoric remixes by Westbam and DJ Seduction. Just listening to this puts a smile on my face and makes me want to get up and dance. After the refreshing sound of Everytime You Touch Me (NYC Jungle Mix) and the uplifting refrain of Into The Blue (Spiritual Mix), the disc unwinds with two solemn ambient piano tracks. The Everything Is Wrong (Quiet Mix) echoes the prayerfulness of Hymn.alt.quiet.version.
Disc two begins with Let's Go Free (Reversal Mix), in which Moby spins the record backwards, accellerating and then decelerating. Not exactly what I'd call a remix, but it sounds cool and sets the stage for the dancey Hymn (I Believe). If disc one is the "happy disc", this is the "sad" one. That is an oversimplification, of course, but this disc does sound like the logical flipside of the other. Tracks have a somewhat cold, "underground" feel to them. Three rare and excellent versions of Hymn appear on this CD, along with Josh Wink's acid interpretation of Bring Back My Happiness. The jubilant Into The Blue (Simple Mix) is discordantly inserted between a remix of BBMH and Move (Electro Mix). Then comes the introspective All That I Need Is To Be Loved (Melodic Mix), which is a perfect marriage of ATINITBL with Hymn. To conclude two hours of great music, the listener is treated to When It's Cold I'd Like To Die (Instrumental), which is a full nine minutes! But the minutes pass quickly, and you are left with a lone piano harmony slowly fading away into oblivion...
Okay, so this release isn't perfect. It could have been better. Though most of the time the mixing is done well (sometimes *very* well), it gets a bit ugly in spots, depending on your standards and expectations. The intro and outro of Into The Blue (Simple Mix), for example, harmonically clash with the neighboring tracks. Nothing too severe, but it didn't have to be that way. Also, the Josh Wink mix of BBMH deserved to get more time on its own track than it did. Hymn (Lucky Orgasm) started too early and was well in progress before the Wink mix finally shut up. I think the main problem was that after mixing to the next song, Moby seemed insistent on playing the previous mix to completion whenever possible, even when it got in the way of the new mix. For example, Hymn (Menacing Mix) should have been faded out no later than ten seconds into the next track, but it didn't conclude until forty seconds into it, disrupting what could have been a good beginning for the next mix. About a minute and a half into track three of disc two, the volume is audibly decreased, though it's just a momentary sensation. And though many great mixes were used, it would have been nice to hear such gems as Hymn (Dirty Hypo), Move (Sub Version), Bring Back My Happiness (Voodoo Child Mix) & (Underground Mix), Steve Mason's Into The Blue (Underground Mix) and Jr. Vasquez's (Tribal Dub).
But if I was disturbed at all by these imperfections, they soon stopped bothering me as I realized what wonderful replay value the remix album has. I keep listening, because overall the music is superb and fits together wonderfully! It's a shame that Elektra isn't releasing this in America. Those of us in the culturally deprived USA must resort to getting it as an import. Nevertheless, it's well worth the expense of doing so, imho. Whether you have all the singles or you're just interested in hearing what Moby is like, Everything Is Wrong - DJ Mix Album is a great buy, with something for everyone.
Happy listening, and God bless...