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Post by HOMETIME on Jul 5, 2024 17:07:37 GMT
I know that we've heard many unofficial and fan-made extended versions of ABBA songs over the years. They've varied wildly in quality and have often been unlistenable. I know that many people are purists on this matter and will have no truck with attempted remixes. But I have just found a new account on YouTube that extends and remixes a surprising range of ABBA tracks in a very polished way. I suspect they're using AI to a large extent, as the girls' voices seem to have been recreated for some vocalising and a few la-la-la's and instrumentation that don't seem to have been features on the originals. There have been a few other liberties taken here and there but, for the most part, I think they kinda work. I'd be interested to hear what people think. www.youtube.com/@dystopiangreenroomA sample remix: |
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Post by foreverfan on Jul 5, 2024 18:54:11 GMT
I quite like some remixes, and the above isn't bad at all..
Whoever they are have released quite a few Remixes now and I've just listened to Head Over Heels , which is also quite good Very much a Tango theme, which works..
It will be interesting On forth coming releases...
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Post by richard on Jul 5, 2024 19:02:53 GMT
I love this extended mix of Angeleyes. And the impact when the the 'proper'/familiar version comes in is only increased for me. I can see this happening more and more, including using AI,as you suggest, Tony, for some of the reimagining of tracks.
The genie is out of the bottle now, and, yes, I do have some misgivings about it; but I can also see some wonderful, brilliant alternative versions of some of my favourite tracks appearing - including Angeleyes here.
And of course those who dislike such 'messing about' with the original mixes (as they might regard it) still have those original versions.
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Post by bjorenny on Jul 6, 2024 15:53:04 GMT
I do like that the mixes mentioned stick to the style and 'feel' of the originals. The only bits I don't like are the added vocals which stand out a mile as non-ABBA. If you could have an ABBA track released with an official 12" extended remix done by B & B, which track would you choose? I was a bit gutted that VV was the only one to get an extended version as, although it's a good song, it was already a long track with lots of repetition, so the extended version just goes on a bit for me.
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Post by HOMETIME on Jul 7, 2024 18:37:27 GMT
I love this extended mix of Angeleyes. And the impact when the the 'proper'/familiar version comes in is only increased for me. [...] The new strings on the opening section remind me a little of the string arrangement in DSMD: very 1960s. The jauntiness of both reminds me a little of Miss Marple's Theme. The real string arrangement on Angeleyes is more baroque in feel, marrying nicely with the intro of AGAN. In a real, official remix, I'd hope that much more would be made of those glorious strings. To bjorenny's question, I'd really love to hear the 1983 Tretow remixes. I think they were TV, TACOM, OAOAO, LAYLOM. Other than those, I think there are plenty of tracks that could lend themselves to extended remixes. Basically, anything on Voulez-Vous (apart from the ballads). I think IIWFTN could be brilliantly extended with stripped back sections, breakdowns and risers. If ABBA had been in the business of commissioning remixes from ecternal producers/remixers, I wonder what someone like Julian Mendelsohn might have done with The Visitors, Lay All Your Love On Me, and maybe Me And I. I'm a big fan of those big 80s sounds, and he did great work with Pet Shop Boys and Agnetha's The Last Time. Actually, if Mendelsohn couldn't do those tracks, maybe Pet Shop Boys could. Anyhoo, it's all fantasy and conjecture. |
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Post by HOMETIME on Jul 9, 2024 16:16:46 GMT
I wonder what iiwftn will think of the new extended version of If It Wasn't For The Nights. Just like the other tracks, it takes a few liberties with "replicating" the girls' voices (nice try, Fake-netha and Faux-rida), and throws in a random sax solo. But I kinda like it! |
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Post by foreverfan on Jul 9, 2024 18:21:44 GMT
I'm slowly getting impressed by these extended remixes.. another good one. ^^ as if it wasn't long enough ..lol
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Post by richard on Jul 9, 2024 20:14:47 GMT
I like that.  Unlike Angeleyes, for me the extended intro in this remix of IIWFTN actually detracts from the original intro when it arrives with that great 'treated' piano sound. Nor do I think the added outro does anything for the track. Of course a number of us would love it if IIWFTN had been a single (with editing to reduce its duration). But I appreciate this extended remixing isn't singles territory, anyway. |
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Post by janabbafan on Jul 10, 2024 15:42:18 GMT
In a way, those extended mixes are a good direction to what I would have wanted ABBA to have done. But: instrumentation is not ABBA, vocals are not, Tretow's mixing is not, the choice of the played chords is not Benny's, the persons playing the instruments are not Benny Björn and the rest of the band, allo the "new" in these mixes is NOT ABBA. I would prefer that only what ABBA themselves recorded would be put in an extended mix. I have to admitt something: when I play ABBA songs on my piano, I do the same thing |
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Post by iiwftn on Jul 22, 2024 8:41:54 GMT
I wonder what iiwftn will think of the new extended version of If It Wasn't For The Nights. Just like the other tracks, it takes a few liberties with "replicating" the girls' voices (nice try, Fake-netha and Faux-rida), and throws in a random sax solo. But I kinda like it! Thanks for the tag, Hometime. I thought the outro was good fun although I’m not sure about the sax! Nothing will ever beat the original intro (which to me is the G.O.A.T). |
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Post by bjorenny on Jul 23, 2024 17:57:54 GMT
Unfortunately Universal Music have asked the above remixer to stop work on the ABBA extended versions and remove the existing content from the channel, which is a real shame with all the obvious hard work that went into creating them. So that's that then. 😦
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Post by abbalovingfan05 on Jul 23, 2024 22:41:29 GMT
Does the one who made the mixes have other social media platforms? Do yall think that those will get reposted? I rly loved the Angeleyes ones, because of the instrumental both at the begining and the ending and omggggg, the vocals at the begining going like la la la. Amazing. Where did he even find those vocals to begin with? Hidden vocals within the track?
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