And the award for Most Generic Album Title (formerly held by
Flipper for their album
Album) goes to...Om Records, whose latest remix compilation is titled, simply,
Remixed. To say that the music itself sometimes feels a bit generic as well isn't really to criticize it, but rather to reveal a particular bias regarding house music. There are two basic kinds of remix compilation: the cerebral kind (which, however funky it may be, is mainly for listening) and the visceral kind (primarily for dancing). This tasteful collection is solidly in the latter camp, and includes fine house mixes of work by respected artists like
Mark Farina,
Afro-Mystik,
Kaskade, and Soulstice by such equally respected producers as
Thievery Corporation,
Andy Caldwell, and
Miguel Migs. Not everything comes from the thudding, four-on-the-floor school of deep house minimalism, either: after the three opening tracks, you get dropped into an unexpectedly deep and echoey hole of dubwise funk-reggae (
Eighty Mile Beach's exquisite "No Right Angles," as mixed by
Thievery Corporation), then pulled out and bounced along the floor by the quirkily hooky "Fooling Myself" (by
King Kooba, as mixed by
Derrick Carter). There are other little surprises as well, such as the stutter-step house beat of
DJ Spinna's take on Soulstice's "Reason" and the faintly exotic "Meditation to the Groove" by
Kaskade (as mixed by
Johnny Fiasco). No matter what you think of the genre in general, this whole album is well worth a listen. ~ Rick Anderson