Only a shadow, only a shadow, only a shadow
But she looks like you
Heartbreak has a peculiar way of making an unreliable eyewitness out of an otherwise sensible person. A stranger becomes a former lover, an empty street offers evidence of a reunion, and suddenly you are wandering outside in pursuit of someone who has already made their position quite clear. The Cleaners From Venus gave that miserable little predicament an improbably lovely guitar hook on Only a Shadow, a song whose romantic unease has been finding fresh company since 1982.
Brooklyn post-punk outfit ADMIN now joins that company with a faithful, dreamier rendition of the song, released October 15, 2026, via PaperCup Music. It accompanies two new versions of their own material: Marathon Times (Trash Moth Remix), reworked by guitarist Amelia Hazen, and Not Bad (KaeoFLUX Remix), courtesy of producer Ryan Casey.
The original appeared on Midnight Cleaners, the Cleaners’ third cassette album, released in December 1982. Formed by Martin Newell and drummer Lol Elliott, the English group pursued homemade pop with the resourcefulness of people who had little patience for the machinery of the record business. Their early recordings circulated through independently distributed tapes, carrying elaborate melodies and eccentric ideas well beyond the rooms in which they were recorded. By Midnight Cleaners, Newell was working largely alone, bringing drum machines and additional synthesizers into his four-track recordings.
Only a Shadow distills that approach into a remarkably immediate song. Its bright, repeating guitar figure, steady beat, and slightly remote vocal give the melody an inviting surface, while the words introduce rejection, nervousness, and the suspicion that every passing resemblance might be something more. The tune has the economy of classic British pop and the unsettled temperament of post-punk, with the modest recording lending the whole encounter a private, faintly uncanny quality. Later covers by MGMT and Small Black, alongside Captured Tracks’ 2012 reissues of the early Cleaners albums, chart its passage from cassette culture into the repertoire of subsequent generations.
ADMIN brings a brighter finish and a little more air to the song, placing greater emphasis on the bassline’s supple groove. Above it, the familiar guitar hook takes on a softer, dreamier resonance, its notes ringing out with an almost weightless ease. There is something of French coldwave’s more romantic sensibility in the treatment, as though Little Nemo had taken the song into their rehearsal room. That added spaciousness gives the melody room to bloom around the rhythm, making the yearning feel a little more exposed. The arrangement remains close to the original, with the affection audible in how carefully ADMIN preserve its proportions.
For the band, the song also marks the beginning of their own musical relationship:
“This collection of singles is really about momentum. We kinda love the idea of just continuing on with different lenses and angles in the wave of the last EP cycle. Our cover of Only A Shadow is also actually the very first song that we all started playing as a full band and in hind sight it kinda represents so much of the creative alchemy we try to encapsulate. We had about 30 extra minutes of time in the studio during the Mirrored Construct sessions, so we just ran it live a couple times and that’s what ended up on the record. We didn’t really reinterpret it either, it’s more of an homage to the original being such an incredible song.”
That same impulse to keep a productive session going extends to the accompanying remixes, which revisit material from Systems, their 2025 debut EP, and this year’s Mirrored Construct. KaeoFLUX takes on Not Bad from the former, bringing an outside producer’s perspective to the band’s catalogue. Marathon Times, meanwhile, receives its overhaul from inside the group, with Hazen working under her Trash Moth name. Frontman Ian Jacobs explains how both versions came together:
“The remixes are also something that came to us through catching a solid wave of momentum. My friend KaeoFLUX (Ryan Casey) who is an incredible producer and also one of the masterminds over at Samples From Mars was able to put together a remix of Not Bad from our first EP and his sonic palette and imagination absolutely nailed it. And then the remix of Marathon Times that Amelia (ADMIN, guitarist) did was absolute magic. She actually played it for us, unknowingly, on our last little tour and I think we were all just blown away with what she created and wanted everyone we know to hear it too. Kind of awesome to find out you have a top notch remix producer in the band.”
Hazen’s Marathon Times remix replaces the original’s measured restraint with more forceful percussion, insistent synthesizers, and a groove that gives its tension somewhere physical to go. The combination suggests New Order’s balance of melody and motion, Boy Harsher’s charged intimacy, and the darker club instincts of Depeche Mode. Its energy comes through a carefully reduced arrangement, with each element contributing to the track’s forward movement. The idea began with a practical adjustment made for the original music video.
“I first had the impulse to make a remix of Marathon Times when we used a 2x sped-up version of the original song to accomplish the music video’s slo-mo effect.” says Hazen. “While that version was kind of manic, it made me think that the original had a lot of untapped energy to offer. Every sound I selected from drums to bass to atmospheric effects had to be something that was able to carry that energy; I applied the practice that less is more, and after building it up across a few concepts, made myself cut out anything that wasn’t serving the song.”
Watch the original video for Marathon Times below:
ADMIN’s mix of angular guitars, layered synthesizers, and driving rhythms has already taken them onto stages with of Montreal, Pure Adult, and ISTA. Alongside Jacobs on vocals, synthesizers, and sampler, and Hazen on guitar and vocals, the group features Arif on bass and Piyal on drums.
Only a Shadow / Marathon Times (Remix) / Not Bad (Remix) is out now via PaperCup Music. Listen below:
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