This is a weirdly packaged release.  Six Duran Duran remixes pressed onto two vinyl records and housed in a gatefold sleeve, but each record is single sided.  And it’s not like there’s any fancy etching on the blank sides.  They’re just blank.  So why the hell not just put this all onto one record in a regular sleeve?  And speaking of the sleeve, what’s up with the cover?  I assume this was all done very intentionally, perhaps to give the whole thing the cachet of some kind of underground DJ white label or something.  Seems like a lot of extra cost and trouble, though.

As for the jams, Duran Duran was one of if not my very first musical guilty pleasure – I had a cassette copy of Seven and the Ragged Tiger that I hid in my room, away from my other tapes so none of my metal loving friends would see it and give me crap.  That’s just sort of how it was then, or at least it seemed that way in my 12-year-old world.  Your musical tastes were one of the things you used to define you, and those tastes legitimately impacted how other kids reacted to and treated you.  Dumb?  Of course.  True?  Definitely.

But I digress.  Duran Duran is one of those bands that lends itself to the remix treatment, and these six cuts sound outstanding on my Rega, clear and bold.  I’m not sure why this thing was put out, but I’m glad it was – if you’re down with 1980s remixes, Master Mixes is definitely for you.