At the turn of the eighties, synthpop was taking over. David Bowie's Berlin Trilogy had lit the paper, and the subsequent explosion of electronic groups would create a trend and style which continues to this day. Synthesisers allowed music to become impersonal, allowing the creation of truly synthetic music. A beat, a groove that people could dance to, and that became all that matters (something Bowie himself would revisit in Let's Dance). In 1979, Robin Scott's M released Pop Muzik, which was a chart smash, in 1989, they would release a remix of it, let's see how both compare, as the A side is the remix, and the B Side is the original!
Fanfare opens up to the 1989 Pop Muzik remix, followed by it's trademark beat and chorus, taking us into the rap-like voice. The beat stays the same throughout the track, we get slight moments of synth plodding and twinkling and processed backing vocals. The track is definitely danceable, but that seems to really be it. Also the beat sounds very much like that of the Ghostbusters theme. The lead singing shows an almost comical lack of caring, it's just some fun.
Side B is the original Pop Muzik, opening up with a digital fanfare as opposed to the remix's one. The beat is more synthetic and synthy, the vocals exactly the same, the beat the same, just the track sounds flatter, due to the more earlier synth sounds. Again it's danceable and that's really it. Why they included this as the B side makes no sense, as very little has changed between the two versions.
So, All in all, a dance track and nothing more. I can imagine it was fun to bounce to back in it's day, but lacks the mega-compressed bass of modern dance tracks, so I doubt it would work well in today's nightclubs, unless it had megabass and the same dirty synth chords which're used on every track. In short, don't get it, it's dull.
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