Remixing soundtrack recordings is fraught with difficulties and pitfalls. You’re taking something that probably wasn’t originally designed to conform to a certain number of beats-per-minute and you’re now imposing that rhythmic structure onto a piece that may not be best suited to that format. And as often as not, as with, say, the remixes of the themes from The X-Files or Mission: Impossible that accompanied those properties’ emergence as movie franchises, what you end up doing is rebuilding the whole piece from the ground up, resulting in something that is less of a remix and more of a completely new recording (as was the case with FAB’s tribute to The Prisoner). The music from the subversive 1988 Doctor Who three-parter The Happiness Patrol is definitely a tough nut to crack; though largely performed on synthesizers (and a bit of real harmonica), it creates its tension by stretching things out occasionally, and to try to force those occasional pauses or changes in meter to conform to a certain beat would seem to be a bit self-defeating to the atmosphere.
But wait! The advantage this release has is that the remix is done by the original composer for those three episodes, and not someone coming in later with limited experience or appreciation for the original music. Glynn has done prior Doctor Who remix albums (The Gallifrey Remixes, The Ravolox Remixes), and scored episodes of Doctor Who from 1986 through its final 20th century season in 1989, as well as creating the theme music arrangement for the 1986 Trial Of A Time Lord season. Glynn understands the feel; he wrote the music to begin with. The longest track, “Happiness Will Prevail”, begins without the slightest hint that it’s a remix. Layers of added synths deepen the harmonies, and by the time percussion that wasn’t in the original score starts to subtly creep in, nothing feels out of place – everything supports and strengthens the original piece rather than clashing with it. At around the four-and-a-half-minute mark, Glynn slips in dialogue from one of the story’s most powerful scenes (truthfully, one of Sylvester McCoy’s most powerful scenes as the Doctor), and by this time, you’re on board with it. The rhythm starts becoming more pronounced, the added synths more modern, but it all serves to enhance, rather than intrude on, the remaining elements of the original score. And yes, you could conceivably dance to it. I was originally skeptical of the ten-minute run time of this track, but that run time allows Glynn to layer things in without the additions feeling rushed or intrusive.
The shorter tracks introduce new elements over the original recordings from the word go, because surely by now you’re aware this is a remix album. “Brandy Of The Damned” does a good job of picking up the momentum from the first track and running with it; you’re over two minutes into this track before some very busy synths and percussion suddenly drop in. “Kandymania”, as the name implies, builds new layers on top of the off-key calliope theme for the Kandyman, an experiment that perhaps mercifully lasts only two minutes but is still enjoyably moody. “I’m Happy You’re Glad” brings the sinister mood to its conclusion, dropping in its own extra layers of percussion to round out the EP’s total run time which is, generously enough, almost equal to the length of one of The Happiness Patrol‘s three episodes.
It’s all very nicely done, and at no point detracts from the original cues from 1988; if anything, it’s like we already have a score on hand in case the modern Doctor Who ever decides to bring back the Kandyman. Which is something that’s very unlikely to happen, but then I would’ve said the same of anyone’s chances of building a decent remix EP on top of this story’s score. Now I have the urge to hear Survival get the same treatment beyond the tantalizing single track devoted to remixing it on The Ravolox Remixes.
- Happiness Will Prevail (Remix) (10:39)
- Brandy Of The Damned (Remix) (4:47)
- Kandymania (Remix) (2:02)
- I’m Happy You’re Glad (Remix) (5:11)
Released by: No Bones Records
Release date: September 18, 2017
Total running time: 22:39