Let me get this straight. A collaboration between respected techno/avant-garde fellow LOPAZZ (Cocoon, Output et al) and eighties pop group Imagination? Yes. For a similar pairing look no further than our old friends chalk & cheese, but through a mutual connection access to the original files was granted and hey presto an interesting release on Get Physical.
For the life of me I can’t understand the point of reworking an eighties pop band and making it sound nothing, and I mean nothing like the original. Put that out of your mind and think about Get Physical doing what they do best, melodic, quirky techno and you’ve got somewhere near to where you need to be.
LOPAZZ & Zarook head up the package with their remix [sic] of New Dimension, which is the single reason I was attracted to the package. I’m not sure if the drums and percussion were sampled from the original, certainly they have a live feeling that gives this track a potential crossover into house & nu-disco territory and give this track a great live-feel quality. The bassline is the key to this track, driving the whole thing funkily onwards through the cut up vocals, delicate synth melodies and pads. It’s a builder make no mistake, thoroughly well produced - if not conceived. Let’s call it techno boogie, unusual and funky, we like it a lot.
The rest of the package is deep techno utilising some minor elements of the original track, the LOPAZZ & Zarook Vinyl Version is the pick of the bunch but for me it’s the LOPAZZ & Zarook Edit all the way. Odd goodness.