Gavin Friday and Dave Ball - Ghostrider

The latest instalment in Blast First Petite's series of Suicide tribute 10 inches to commemorate Alan Vega's 70th birthday reunites Dave Ball (Soft Cell, The Grid) with Gavin Friday (Virgin Prunes). The last time I remember these two collaborating was on the former Soft Cell musician Dave Ball's solo album In Strict Tempo where Gavin Friday sung on the title track. Here they reinterpret 'Ghostrider', the opening track from Suicide's eponymous debut album, as a beaty synth-pop number complete with electronic shudders. Gavin Friday lays down a solid smouldering vocal performance, ever so slightly treated at points. It's vastly different from the versions that Soft Cell performed or at least from the live cut I've got on Pink Culture an old Marc Almond and Soft Cell bootleg album. Definitely a high point of the series, and word has it that there's a new album on the way from Gavin Friday.

For the other tracks Thomas Brinkmann transforms the stuttering electronics of 'Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne' into a twitchy techno piece with a massive lunging beat throughout. Both Primal Scream and Conrad Standish have supplied versions of this track to the series but Thomas Brinkmann's version taken from a 2006 12-inch release is the most satisfying version of this opening track from Suicide's The Second Album. The final piece is the amusingly titled 'Puss on Tha Time Warp' a solo Alan Vega track taken from his 1999 album 2007 where he wraps his New York rock 'n' roll drawl over a clunky crashing rhythm, throbbing molten electronics and a collage of cut-up sounds.

Ghostrider like all the 10-inches in the series which have included Bruce Springsteen, The Horrors, Lydia Lunch... is limited but this one limited to a mere 1000 copies is more limited than the rest. So don't wait too long. Nice artwork from Alan Vega on the cover too. For more information go to www.blastfirstpetite.com