“Oriental Beat” is a defining masterpiece made when Hanoi Rocks was about to explode onto the world scene and written at the absolute peak of lead guitarist Andy McCoy’s creativity as a songwriter. With the tapes mysteriously showing up in the Universal vault recently, the band was finally able to mix and re-sequence the album the way they wanted it to sound. Released before the band could remix or rerecord it, as the label had run out of money, and the master tapes had gone missing, the band has always considered the original mix of “Oriental Beat” to be a “disaster”. “Oriental Beat’s” original engineer Peter Wooliscroft was not a rock producer, and according to Hanoi Rocks’ manager Richard Bishop he “tried to mix the album to sound like Spandau Ballet”. Bassist Sami Yaffa called it “the worst sounding album of our career” and Michael Monroe said that “the producer of the album didn’t have a clue what the band was about, and his mix of the album was horribly wrong”. Hanoi Rocks drummer Gyp Casino says of “Oriental Beat” that: “Back in the days we gave heart, soul and a bit of pain to make this record something else” but the sound of the album, originally released in 1982, did not match their efforts at the time. Recorded in London, UK in 1981, for 200 pounds a day, “Oriental Beat” was made during the height of the British punk + New Wave movement, when the band was hanging out with everyone from Phil Lynott to the Damned. Vocalist Michael Monroe calls this release “the longest and slowest album recording project ever,” stating that “40 years in the making, it’s not just a remix, but the REAL MIX supervised and approved by Hanoi Rocks. Dubbed the “re(al)mix”, this 40th anniversary edition was mixed by Petri Majuri at E-Studios in Finland in collaboration with the band. Album Description“Oriental Beat” by Hanoi Rocks gets the redux treatment, officially mixed and revived from the original sessions, and released on March 17th on deluxe vinyl, CD and digital formats. See More Your browser does not support the audio element. Due to this tragic turn of events Oriental Beat has to unfortunately stand as an album by a band full of potential that sadly was never given a chance to fulfill it. In 1984, the band's drummer, Razzle, died in a car accident as a passenger in a car driven by Mötley Crüe's Vince Neil the band broke up a year later. By listening to this album you can see the influence Hanoi Rocks had on the artists that followed them. Oriental Beat shows where punk would have gone in the '80s if new wave and synthesizers never came along. A slick '80s hit-making producer like Mutt Lange (Def Leppard) or Bob Rock (Mötley Crüe, the Cult) could have made this band huge in the States. The drums sound like they were recorded in another building separate from the rest of the band. Despite a respectable amount of potential on most of the album, poor production limits the effectiveness of many tracks. "Motorvatin'" and "Devil Woman" would easily have found a home on MTV circa 1987, and feminine-looking, lipstick-wearing, glammed-out lead singer Michael Monroe's image would have been plastered all over music television right next to Bret Michaels, Vince Neil, and Jon Bon Jovi. Guitarist and chief songwriter Andy McCoy does his best Johnny Thunders on "Teenangels Outsiders." Other tracks on the album show the band displaying a sound that would be emulated by many future pop-metal bands. Baby" and "Oriental Beat" find the band closely resembling English punk rockers the Damned. The band shows its punk and glam influences not only with its look on the cover of the album but also with the music performed on the album as well. Oriental Beat is full of big singalong choruses and catchy riffs that would have made the band heavy players either five years earlier or later. Oriental Beat is an album that finds itself slightly out of step with the music scene of the period - it was too late for the prime punk period of the late '70s and it was too early for the pop-metal explosion of the mid-to-late '80s. Oriental Beat finds Hanoi Rocks bringing the glam sound and look of the New York Dolls into the '80s. Hanoi Rocks may have been the best hard rock band Finland had to offer the world in 1982, but their sound and look was heavily influenced by the punk scenes of the late '70s in downtown New York and England. Purchase and download this album in a wide variety of formats depending on your needs.
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