artist: Propaganda title: Dr Mabuse format: 12″ single design: XLZTT photography: n/a illustration: Anton Corbijn cat. no: 12ZTAS 2 date: ?/03/84 art of notes: On releasing a new remix entitled ‘The 13th Life’, ZTT chose to sticker some copies of the existing ‘hand’ sleeve with this declaration. Many didn’t have this though and The 13th Life mix has been found in both the ‘hand’ and ‘zeppelin’ sleeves as well as, later, the grey ‘Who, Chance, Blink’ ZTT house bag. All on body labels for all versions of the 12″ mixes are identical so the only way to tell which mix you have is by playing the disc or looking at the matrix stamp on the disc’s run out groove.
A press release (later known as a Tumbometer) was written to announce the mix:
“As is the standard, playful Zang Tuum Tumb policy, there is now a second 12″ variation on Propaganda’s powerful celebration of dance and crime, Dr. Mabuse. Just as you thought all of Mabuse’s lives had been used up, back into your life he leaps, with his thirteenth life – a less unsettling, unpredictable experience as the first 12″ but equally as infectious and uplifting. ‘The 13th Life’ slips into place with delicious ease, teases the dance into a false sense of security, and then never lets she/he/it go. Propaganda know that only the exhausting is truly interesting, and ‘The 13th Life’ is prepared to exhaust whoever comes close. Its’ absolute excitement comes from the pressure only Trevor Horn knows how to apply to a machine, a mix, a masterpiece. If Dr. Mabuse hasn’t been able to persuade anyone so far, then ‘The 13th Life’ will be the killer attraction, the conclusive proof. Dance as crime.”
One Response
Oddly, when I ordered the 7″ and 12″ of Mabuse in early 1985, never having heard the track (in the 80s it was possible never to hear things unless you sought them out) this was the 12″ I got. I never knew the original classic 12″ even existed until about 1990.