“electro_lounge”
Electro Lounge
Electronic Excursions in Hi-Fi Stereo
The Right Stuff/Capitol
This remix album gathers a dozen smooth classics (including Dean Martin’s “Sway,” “Watermelon Man,” “Caravan,” you get the idea) and jeopardizes their retro value in the hands of remixers. Big names too, like Wagon Christ, Eat Static, Meat Beat Manifesto, Utah Saints. A recipe for disaster?
Not quite. It may be a concept in high cheese, indeed, but as much as I’d like to be angry and disgusted with this, it works pretty well most of the time, and even when it doesn’t, it’s fairly tolerable. Highly enjoyable points include the Utah Saint’s stoplight remix of “Watermelon Man,” The Rip Off Artist’s treatment of “Sway,” with bleeping miniloops, and Q-Burns’ chop-socky redo of the unearthly Yma Sumac’s “Gopher.” Which reminds me, spicing the stew is the liberal cross-sampling I hear across several tracks, like the lovely Miss Sumac’s warble or that freaky chick with the blue V8 for a head from The Fifth Element and her space opera. Hey, if a purist like me can find tasty digestible nuggets in this synthetic concoction, the kids must eat it up like garlic bread. Rotsa fun.
