One More Chance for Bobby Orlando

1984 proved to be a critical year for 30 year old Neil Tennant and 25 year old Chris Lowe. Their short love affair with producer, Bobby Orlando, spawned their now infamous "West End Girls". But if you thought this disco crush ended there then you are terribly wrong.
Out of Bobby's tender loins spurted out "One More Chance". The song was intended for the lovely Divine by the name of "Rock Me", but ended up in the mouth of a fledgling, later legendary, Pet Shop Boys.

Chris Lowe later had his way with this song.

Don't take my word for it but I prefer the original:

Pet Shop Boys - One More Chance (1984)

The Presets - If I Know You Video

If I Know You represents one of the more sublimely opulent moments from the multi award winning second album by The Presets, Apocalypso. Built from a somber chord progression and poignant tale of bitterness and lessons learned, If I Know You echoes of lonely night drives, dancing in the forest and the feeling of gallantly marching away from a spiteful lover. If the first single from Apocalypso, My People was a sledgehammer to the skull, then If I Know You, the last, is its lance to the heart accompaniment.

To recreate the emotionally resonant atmosphere of the song on film, The Presets have enlisted French director Eva Husson (who directed the acclaimed short for M83's Kim and Jessie last year) to weave a poetic LA dream sequence of fire and dance.

Husson’s tale follows a teen as he departs his plush family home in the Hollywood Hills in the morning light, and follows him as he walks, runs and dances his way through the picturesque Los Angeles cityscape throughout the day and into the night, climaxing at some kind of ritualistic bonfire surrounded by dancing, disaffected youth on skidrow.

The video is a thrilling juxtaposition of a middle class teen from the burbs, the volatile LA environment, explosive dance and the touching electronic throb of The Presets’ track.

As is the parlance of our times, If I Know You has been given the remix treatment from a saddle of heavies. Tom Middleton turns heartbreak into ecstasy, with a bombastic house rework, while UK new-Italo duo Heartbreak turn in a throbbing old school electro-disco jammer. Former Depeche Mode/Yazoo/Erasure production don Vince Clarke returned to the studio to whip up a mystic voodoo breakbeat version that one wouldn’t generally conceive when thinking of The Presets but makes sweet sense. Via Tania and Jori Hulkkonen teamed up under the name Tania & Jori to conjure up a completely enchanting, swirling analogue bubblebath of a cover, with Tania’s vocals replacing Julian Hamilton's, while Israeli techno producer Chaim strips the song back to even less than bare bones, if that’s possible, for an impressively stark, minimal builder.

If I Know You is to be released late March 2009 on Modular.

Happy Valentines, see you at Good Vibrations this afternoon.

Love,

The Presets

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