Given the consistently high quality of the compositions on their 2007 album
Rude Mechanicals, it was inevitable that other producers and DJs would pounce on the opportunity to reinterpret those tunes, and sure enough, by 2009 the band's label had amassed 14 remixes of the album's original nine tracks by the likes of
Kerretta,
Simon Flower,
Bluetech, and (best of all)
International Observer. The latter start things off with a brilliant treatment of "1000 Mile Drift," which was a chugging steppers number on
Rude Mechanicals but is here deconstructed into a subtly but brilliantly swinging one-drop rhythm.
Bluetech's mix of "South of the Line" renders that track as gently rolling funk-reggae with fun, burbling sound effects; the coyly named Rob turns "Harmonia" into something cool, dark, and dubwise; while Groove Yantra imports some pseudo-Asianisms into the formerly jungly "Please Leave Quietly."
Subtone and the production team of Fold vs Horace deliver competing interpretations of "Bird Soul," the former giving it a cool and reserved jungle treatment and the latter a hotter breaks framework; both versions are excellent. Patch's mix of "Sonic Colonic" is rhythmically stiff and ultimately rather boring, but that's the only real misstep on this excellent remix compilation. ~ Rick Anderson