courtesy Pete Hammond

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If the '80s are defined by excess, perhaps no body of work is more endemic of that age than that of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken and Pete Waterman (collectively known as Stock Aitken Waterman), the production trio who ruled British radio at the end of that decade and into the next. Churning out globe-trotting hits for the likes of Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue, Donna Summer, Dead or Alive, Bananarama and so many more, their sound was a composite of the 25 years of dance music history before it. The sum of their parts felt particularly heavy—their highly plastic sound is what you'd get if you stacked house on top of hi-NRG on top of Italo disco on top of classic disco on top of Motown and removed none of the constituents. The sound of dance music ballooned as the '80s progressed, and SAW made sure there was plenty of pop to go along with it.

Helping sort them out was Pete Hammond, a veteran musician who played in Limme and the Family Cooking and remixer. Hammond was hired by Waterman to be the resident "mixmaster" of PWL (Pete Waterman Limited), the label home of SAW, and got his hands on most of SAW's best-known productions. By the time Hammond left in '92, the PWL sound was past its prime and the target of much derision. It fizzled shortly after. To get a sense of its legacy, the derisive prank known as Rickrolling was about PWL's biggest revival since its heyday.

Until now, maybe. In recent years, Hammond has been commissioned to produce a series of "retro remixes" that approximate the giantness of his '80s work, starting with his stunning take on Alphabeat's 2008 single "Boyfriend." In that time, he's given Wynonna Judd's music an '80s makeover to match her hair and, you know, vibe; he brought Amanda Lear back to the disco; and, maybe most satisfyingly, he's remixed Kylie Minogue in the style that launched her career in 1988. His just-released remix of "Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love)" is packed to the gills with joy. It could be the slightly wiser older sister of "I Should Be So Lucky."

We reached Hammond at his studio in England to discuss his career and the revival of his sound, which of course required a ton of reminiscing about the past.

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Santiago Felipe

​Kylie Minogue
Hammerstein Ballroom
Monday, May 2

Better than: Wearing sweatpants and sitting on the couch.

Let's get this out of the way: The Hammerstein Ballroom is a great room for spectacles. Some of the best shows I've seen in New York have been there, and all of them--Pulp, Kraftwerk, the Flaming Lips--have had a level of showmanship about them that has been heightened by the room's deceptive intimacy and good sound. The vibes inside are for the most part posi, too, which is a feat given that the lengthy security line, when I initially arrived at 7:45, stretched all the way down 34th Street and bent onto 9th Avenue.

Kylie Minogue, however, blew those acts (and pretty much everyone touring arenas right now) away last night, the first of her Aphrodite tour's three-evening New York run. Within the first six songs, she had made three grand entrances, arriving on a giant seashell, a pegasus, and a chariot pulled by two gladiators and trailed by a person tasked with fanning her. (Later, she would ascend from the stage's nether regions on a bust... of herself.) A few songs were accompanied by aerialists, who at some points interlocked with one another in such a way that I wondered if The Aerialist Kama Sutra was available at the merch tables. The dancers were plentiful and they were all fantastic, resplendent in their high-concept outfits, waving feathers around like veteran burlesque performers.

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​As previously noted, the pop-house that dominated the charts in 2010 was really fucking insipid. So to see this boneheaded year off, here's an anti-poetic tribute comprised of over 30 hits, misses, and album cuts that came out (or flourished) this year about going to the club, taking shots, dancing, and generally being as mindless as possible. If things continue on like this, you may not have to use your brain whatsoever in 2011. Fingers crossed! (Click on the line for its source track.)

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A pleasingly vapid synth-cheese jam here from Ms. Minogue, about whom we've felt quite fondly since she dropped by last fall and changed costumes 10,000 times. Kylie's at her best with just a slight element of menace/sleaze ("Two Hearts," say), and this don't exactly qualify, but if you're 55 minutes into a spin class this'll still push you toward the summit. New album, Aphrodite, in July. Hopefully she comes back around here soon.

PIc by Santiago Felipe, more below.

​Kylie Minogue
Hammerstein Ballroom
Sunday, October 11

The enduring image from Kylie Minogue's first-ever concert in New York City -- which only took her "That long in decades," she admits sheepishly, flashing a peace sign -- is when she does the Running Man during a between-song break, for roughly a second and a half. Yes, this is the enduring image of a show that begins with Kylie descending from the ceiling atop an enormous crystal skull, wearing a skimpy, sparkly, geometrically confounding getup that reveals her to be roughly 85 percent legs, as eight behelmeted backup dancers dressed like Cobra Commander cavort beneath her.

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