History Revisited
| History Revisited: The Remixes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Remix album by Talk Talk | ||||
| Released | March 1991 | |||
| Recorded | 1982–1990 | |||
| Genre | Synthpop, electronic, dub | |||
| Length | 57:24 | |||
| Label | Parlophone/EMI | |||
| Producer | Tim Friese-Greene | |||
| Talk Talk chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| Q | |
History Revisited: The Remixes is a 1991 album comprising remixes of hit Talk Talk songs. It followed the successful greatest hits collection Natural History, released the year before. The band itself did not take part in the making of the album and condemned its release; consequently, they sued their former record label EMI for using Talk Talk material without permission.
Talk Talk formed in 1981 and released four albums with EMI. Around the time of Spirit of Eden (1988), the band attempted to extract themselves from their recording contract with EMI. 18 months of litigation followed. Ultimately, Talk Talk won the case on appeal, and in 1990 they left EMI and moved to Polydor. Soon after, EMI released the compilation Natural History, a retrospective of Talk Talk's career up until that point. The compilation was surprisingly successful: it spent 21 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at #3, and went on to sell over one million copies worldwide.
To promote Natural History, EMI reissued the singles "It's My Life", "Life's What You Make It", "Such a Shame", and "Living in Another World" in 1990 and 1991. New remixes for the singles' 12-inch and CD formats were commissioned and all four reissues peaked within the top 100 of the UK Singles Chart. The new remixes, prepared by relatively unknown musicians outside of the band, became the basis for History Revisited. They were collected together and three more tracks were added to complete the compilation: new remixes for past singles "Talk Talk" and "Dum Dum Girl" and a remix of "Happiness is Easy" that Talk Talk members Lee Harris and Paul Webb had made in 1986.
The remixes collected on History Revisited modified the source material liberally. According to EMI publicity at the time, they are "Talk Talk through the dance keyhole, taking the diverse sounds of their eighties output and giving it a nineties groove." Keith Aspden, the band's manager, observed, "They haven't just remixed what is already there. They have practically replaced all the instruments with new poppy dance sounds from other people's records, even including an African chant." He commented, "It's a distortion—more like History Reinvented".
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