The inevitable companion to any sort of soul-jazz or jazz-funk reissue campaign since at least the mid-'90s, the remix album is almost always a disappointment. Fans of the artist under reconstruction get annoyed because the DJs and producers take precedence over the original recordings, and fans of the DJs and producers usually aren't that impressed by these boring old guys' records that their favorite hip remix guy is working with. Virgin Ubiquity: Remixed, the two-disc capper to the two-year rarities reissue project of the same name, carries on that proud tradition of being equally unsatisfying for both
Roy Ayers fans and contemporary dance music fans. Most effective are the mixes that do little to mess with the original tracks, merely boosting or replacing the rhythm tracks to increase their dancefloor utility: "Liquid Love (Latin Mix)," which is basically an
Ayers vibraphone solo set next to an Afro-Cuban scraper and a reverb-heavy bassline, is the best of the bunch. The worst, conversely, are those which chop the original recordings into such tiny samples and loops that any sense of
Ayers' personality and inimitable sense of groove is gone. Sadly, too much of Virgin Ubiquity: Remixed is just that kind of pleasant but anonymous club music. ~ Stewart Mason