If I was to list the bands that have been most influential in my life the Hanoi Rocks would be top of that list – there’s no question about that. I grew up loving bands like Thin Lizzy, New York Dolls, Aerosmith, ZZ Top, Blondie, Velvet Underground, The Stones and Queen as well as countless others as a music obsessed teen. But the Hanoi Rocks were the band I discovered all by myself, the band I became obsessed with, the bad I snuck out of home to see and the band I snuck into venues when I was under age to watch. They were the real deal, they were the outsiders, they were my rebellion and reason for being, they made me feel alive and still do to this day.
2023 sees the 40th Anniversary of one of their great records – their second album ‘Oriental Beat’ and whilst ,in my humble opinion, they surpassed it with subsequent releases – it was that album and the previous year’s ‘Bangkok Shocks, Saigon Shakes, Hanoi Rocks’ that completely changed my world as a teenager. This was the record that had me disappearing out of the bedroom window out onto the garage room and into the night, this was the album that had me visit my Uncle in London so that I could escape to exotic places like Camden and Fulham.
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. 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. 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”.
At the time of course the songs carried any deficit in production, and let’s face it ,no one is going to talk down a record they just put out. But over the years reading different sources it was apparent that the band were less than happy with Pete Wooliscroft’s production. To be fair to Pete he was really an engineer (later working on Def Leppard’s Hysteria album) who the same year worked as such on Kate Bush’s ‘The Dreaming’. His outings into producing were few and far between after Oriental Beat.
According to Hanoi Rocks’ manager Richard Bishop he “tried to mix the album to sound like Spandau Ballet”. 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”. 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.
So there’s the history and the reasoning behind the ‘re(al)mix’ let’s get at it! I must admit first though that with the album being so important to me I was very apprehensive to listen and kept putting it off until I plucked up the courage. Would it bring back those same memories or sound out of place, would it diminish or refuel those emotions I felt back in 1982?
As opening tracks go ‘Oriental Beat’… wait a minute? ‘Oriental Beat’ doesn’t open this album, that’s always been ‘Motorvatin” – that wonderful intro drums, bass, guitar, vocals. Well not on the remix it doesn’t – that’s the first shock – ‘Oriental Beat’ now leads out and somehow that just doesn’t seem right. Sonically though ‘Beat’ sounds wonderful – the intro has a different vibe to original mix and there’s a scream at the start that’s been elongated and sounds higer in pitch which now rises rather than appears. To add to that Mike’s vocal is far more pronounced, the bass rises out of the mix and the backing vocals are enhanced to spike in the mix, and man that sax break splits the night! Wow!
It’s certainly interesting, you know when you see a familiar mannikin and one days it’s dressed in new clothes – not a whole new outfit just maybe the shirt – it’s a finer shirt, better made, nicer patterned but there was just something about that old shirt that you came to enjoy despite its imperfections well that’s sort of how it was the first few spins then just yesterday it all clicked when I shirted the tracklisting back to the 1982 order!
‘Motorvatin” has guitars more in the mix but as a longtime fan you can’t help but wonder why they played with the tracklisting, I still expect to hear ‘Don’t Follow Me’ to ring out when it finishes and instead ‘No Law or Oder’ a side 2 cut of the original sounds strange. But strangely it’s here you feel the maximum benefit of the remix. ‘No Law or Order’ was always one of those songs that you felt could do with a make-over and here it’s crisper and brighter and in the Reggae guitar the notes are clearer and again backing vocals are more pronounced. It truly sounds wonderful.
‘Teenangels Outsiders’ miraculously retains its position in the tracklisting and as do the following two tracks it was far easier for me to really get into what’s been done here without the distraction of the reshuffled positions. ‘Teenangels’ sounds wonderful and even though I miss it crashing in after the glorious ‘Visitor’ there’s more energy here somehow and more clarity in the individual instruments.
The familiar funky opening to ‘Sweet Home Suburbia’ sounds just as wonderful, and if there is a stand out amongst the remixes here for me this is probably it. It’s like looking at something you’ve loved for years and finally seeing it lit by a new light. It’s wonderful stuff and the breakdown throws new light on an old friend.
‘M.C. Baby’ too in its familiar placing sounds reinvigorated. It’s still breakneck speed, Punky and full of youthful exuberance but here it sounds even fresher, even more essential in its peacock Punk glory. This is one of the reasons Hanoi is such an important and vital band – this is sheer glorious Rock and Roll it’s not pretending or trying to be something it isn’t – it doesn’t follow trends, it’s completely comfortable in itself and whilst it loves where it all came from it loves it’s murky present just as passionately.
For me ‘Visitor’ was always one of Hanoi’s most fundamentally glorious songs. This is why I loved them. Driven by bass, set off by some seriously creative guitars and driven home by Monroe’s vocal it’s sublime. It’s always been an interesting lyric and what they’ve done with the backing vocals and the guitar in the chorus (that descending part always reminded me of ‘Crazy on You’ by Heart) with the staccato preceding it is one of my favourite parts of the remix.
‘Don’t Follow Me’ is glorious here, like it’s been given a new lease of life, it’s a ‘summer sky’ feelgood blues tinged Pop Rocker that sadly none of us ever got to see played live (I think it was only ever played in Japan).
As far as the running order goes my biggest gripe is that ‘Lightnin’ Bar Blues’ always went so perfectly with closing track ‘Fallen Star’ and the switch with ‘Devil Woman’, sure it changes the momentum but loses the joy of the ‘end of the night’ feel of that original pairing.
As it stands alone Hoyt Axton’s ‘Lightnin’ Bar Blues’ (his mum wrote ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ you know) – the only cover song here, and like the Carole King song ‘Walking With My Angel’ on the debut album wonderfully reworked, is superb. Looking back you feel that as inspirations go Hanoi would have just cited Rock and Roll. It’s like they could see themselves in these tracks. Here the mix is wonderful.
That just leaves the crawling Rocker ‘Devil Woman’ to start to close things out, and like the sax that shines elsewhere it’s the harp here that’s brought out in the mix along with McCoy’s wonderful solo. It’s a great song but for me just fits better where it used to sit. The breakdown with Monroe’s vocal only sounds superb too as does the harmonica break that signals the end.
I’m so glad that they kept ‘Fallen Star’ to close the record as it really is the only way to go out – a simple piano ballad with just Monroe and keys. It underlines what was so special about the band in its eclecticism and I honestly believe that ‘Oriental Beat’ is at least part of the reason why I listen to such diverse music.
Hanoi Rocks are often credited with sparking the whole Los Angeles Hair Metal scene; and whilst you can argue that many bands stole their image and their attitude no one came remotely close to them musically. There’s a complexity about the Hanoi Rocks that no one on the Sunset Strip got. There’s an appreciation of music that no one else cared to listen to. But there’s also an emotion in the music, a vital connection that draws you in, it’s about far more than just having a good time.
Hanoi might have inspired a whole music scene but they were far much more than the movement that followed and whilst ‘Oriental Beat’ might not be my favorite of Hanoi’s albums (I still play all of the records at least once a month and have done for the last 40 years!) here it sounds wonderful. I was afraid to play this for days when it dropped into the inbox my only issue with it is the tampering with the tracklisting which I guess will only become an issue when the vinyl arrives!
“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. Rhythm guitarist Nasty Suicide says “only now, with stripping it down to the bare essentials and tweaking it to bring out what was really laid down it became our dream come true! THIS is what it’s all about” as this definitive edition of “Oriental Beat” now fully displays the ultimate arrogance and attitude which defined the band. Monroe says: “now, 40 years after its original release in 1982, we finally got the album sounding as great as it deserves, with no overdubs or samples,” and McCoy adds that: “It’s better now than ever. This is what it was meant to sound like. So enjoy it…Another shot of 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. 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.
An almost perfect record now even perfecter…
9.5 /10 for the album
9.5 / 10 for the remix
5/10 for the altered tracklisting