It was only a question of time. It had to happen. After all, didn't
the Orb's
Alex Paterson and a host of ecstasy-addled dance music producers take the music of
Pink Floyd into the mixologist's lab?
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, whose very name is synonymous with rock excess and the curse of prog rock, has now been given the same treatment by producer
Mike Bennett on this (shudder) three-CD box set from Burning Airlines. Oh yes, and it was done with the cooperation and participation of
Keith Emerson. Discs one and two each begin with remixes of "Fanfare for the Common Man," which was already a reinterpretation of
Aaron Copland's canonical classical work. Jungle, ambient, techno, and even hard house are used by
Bennett to restring the piece, and
Emerson re-recorded bits and bites for texture. The rest of discs one and two are reworkings of
ELP "classics" such as "I Believe in Father Christmas," "Brain Salad Surgery," "Take a Pebble," etc., and a deconstruction of
Carl Palmer's aggressive drumming style on "Palmstone" at the end of disc two. Disc three consists of various remixes of -- guess what? It's "Fanfare for the Common Man" once again, by such luminaries as Digger,
Clive Mead,
Simon Guilfoyle,
Graham Pilgrim, and
Bennett himself. This is not for everybody, but
ELP fans, wherever they may be, will be tempted to realize this box of electronic plunder for all of its dubious glory. ~ Thom Jurek