Pop Muzik: Wake Up Dead Man (UNKLE Remix)

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2018-03-22)

Pop was released 21 years ago, and we’re still uncovering information about the album each day. For the 21st anniversary we took a look at the album and some of the history of the albums aborted archive edition. We can now reveal that there was a remix that never saw light that has just appeared. The song is “Wake Up Dead Man” and the remix is by UNKLE. UNKLE is a British group founded in 1992 by James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy and in 1997 were working with a number of collaborators including Thom Yorke, Mike D, and Richard Ashcroft.

Lavelle now has a monthly radio show on Soho Radio. And yesterday during his monthly show he commented, “Since I’ve been going through the Mo’ Wax Psyence Fiction DATs I found a U2 mix that never got released”. Psynence Fiction was the debut studio album by UNKLE, released on the Mo’ Wax label on August 24, 1998. UNKLE would have worked on the U2 remix at the same time they were recording the album, thus the song’s presence on the DAT tapes for that album.

The song was played on Lavelle’s broadcast, but we warn you, he’s layered in a voice that pops in occasionally to say ‘exclusive’ over top of the song in a number of locations.

How would U2 have gotten hooked up with UNKLE? Most likely through Howie B who helped produce Pop. Howie B had been involved in UNKLE’s 1995 double EP Time Has Come and he worked extensively with acts on the Mo’ Wax label.

Many thanks to Andrew for the heads up on this track.

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