Eat Your Heart Out

Take a relatively obscure 80s pop track, re-work it by one of the UK?s most successful bands and release it on a highly-respected German label

by NEALE LYTOLLIS

- if you thought that recipe for success was a just little too ambitious to be true then think again because no less than Pet Shop Boys have just released their latest single – a cover of the classic I?m In Love With a German Film Star featuring vocals by Sam Taylor-Wood – on Cologne-based label Kompakt.

On the surface it may seem a curious concoction all round yet it?s perhaps the unlikeliness of it all that has ensured a striking finished product. Kompakt?s Michael Mayer explains how the single came about: ?There?s a longstanding mutual admiration and respect between Kompakt and PSB,? he said, ?We?ve loved their music ever since they started recording. Neil and Chris discovered our label many years ago. They are very up to date with electronic music and even came digging for records in our record store.

This collaboration with Sam Taylor-Wood is a very special side project that they didn?t want to run through their usual channels. It?s a labour of love and the song is about a German film star ? so Kompakt seemed to be a suitable harbour for it.? Neil Tenant says of the collaboration: ?I?m a big fan of Kompakt and it?s a thrill to release something with them; they?re a definitive electronic music label.?

When the song was originally released at the beginning of the 80s it was only a minor hit yet it?s made a lasting impression on Neil Tenant: ?I bought the original version by The Passions in 1981 and I?ve always thought it was a mesmerising track,? he explained, ?We thought the song would lend itself to an electronic interpretation. I hope we?ve emphasised the sexual longing.?

All the stops have been pulled out for this release which features a brace of sexy remixes, three of which come from Berlin?s own Mark Reeder. Michael Mayer is hooked: ?It was the boys? wish to include him in this project. Of course we were aware of his existence since he started the label MFS in 1990 but our paths had never crossed before. To be honest, I was a little unsure if he would be a matching choice given the fact that he was known for working mainly at the mainstream end of trance music but when I heard his mixes I was staggered. He?s totally captured the classic PSB sound of their early Bobby O. phase. That?s probably something a 25-year-old minimal techno hotshot couldn?t have accomplished. I think his Stuck in the 80s Mix rounds off the package in a very appropriate way.?

While Michael Mayer may lean towards Natassja Kinski as his favourite German movie goddess, the striking cover art can leave no doubts as to which German film star Neil Tenant is in love with: ?Marlene, because she?s so glamourous and has that wonderful husky voice!?

Sam Taylor-Wood produced by Pet Shop Boys ? I?m In Love With a German Film Star is out now as CD maxi, 12? and 7? on Kompakt Pop.

www.petshopboys.co.uk
www.kompakt-net.com

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