Fad Gadget – King Of The Flies

I have to disagree with the previous comment. How can you be a Fad Gadget fan and prefer these versions over the LP versions ? They're not terrible but totally missed the postpunk/minimal edge of the originals. "plain clothes" nearly sounds like the Buggles with the piano very up in the mix. Not a big fan of the fake horn sounds on "king of flies" Sounds like they remixed the tracks hoping for a hit and it failed. Wonder what tovey thinks about these remixes - it s always nice to experiment with sounds - but i got my idea.

When I first listened to “King of Flies” I was immediately drawn in and then when I heard its excellent b-side I knew that I would have to dig up more Fad Gadget records. For a time Fad Gadget records were very hard to find but thanks to the CD reissues in the early 1990’s I was able to find their albums quite easily. I even purchased the album Incontinent (which features both “King of the Flies” and “Plain Clothes”) but both songs sounds very different than the 7” version that I had purchased shortly before. It turns out the 7” versions were remixed and IMHO are far superior over the album versions. First off, “King of the Flies” has a steel drum percussion that doesn’t quite fit and “Plain Clothes” has a loud distracting guitar riff that totally distracts from the awesome lyrics about police brutality. “King of Flies” has some amazing lyrics as well. I wish a 12” version of “King of Flies” existed as I’m sure they would sound nicer than the 7” but I’ll take it. I hope that Mute will make Fad Gadgets back catalog available on vinyl again along with 7/12" mixes.