Following up the success of the original ULLAdubULLA two-CD package,
ULLAdubULLA II is a cunning construct that mixes highlights from the original album with a handful of brand-new recordings. The pick of that latter bunch is
Tom Middleton's dramatic revision of "The Eve of the War"; among the other highlights are
Tom Frederikse and
Gaeten Schurrer's "Dark Autumn Dub" of "Forever Autumn" and Zube's reconstruction of the ever-hysterical "The Spirit of Man." Stripped away from their conceptual running order, the best of the performances do take on a whole new life in the remixers' hands, while it's interesting to note that the weakest of all the original album's tracks, "Thunder Child," is nowhere to be found. Other songs, however, reappear several times, illustration of just how stunningly individual many of the remixes are -- regardless of what War of the Worlds purists might tell you. ~ Dave Thompson