Yes, it's basically the same track eight times in a row, but no, it never gets boring. It helps that the original 'Tried by 12' is three minutes of glorious hip hop, with rapper Des' arresting delivery, a catchy koto loop, and a nice sparse beat. It helps even more that the remixes are great: the stand-outs are Squarepusher's dubby, confined chop-up, the Herbaliser's swinging funk, and Trapazoid's raw, scary glitch.

'Before the Dark' and 'Pendulum' are brilliantly tense, half way between Lalo Schifrin's cinematic jazz and David Alexrod's majestic funk. But after that, things go sharply downhill, with grating, loungy electric piano and bland strings. It doesn't help that, for much of the second side, the edgy drums are replaced by a sterile 808. It's as if Cinema just lost interest after a couple of tracks.

The darkest album I own. Cinematic strings, harsh beats, and claustrophobic sound effects are the perfect backdrop to a series of spoken-word stories about twisted love. The exception is Jezebel, which is a breakbeat remix of a scratchy gospel record; you're probably thinking of Moby, but this has a fevered, sinister energy that the bland Play entirely lacked. Highly recommended.

A really idiosyncratic offering, with some great soul and a little bit of well-chosen hip hop. Also, the two tracks from Howie B's own Pussyfoot label, by Stratus and Spacer, are outstanding. Unforgivably, however, it's not actually mixed, with one track just cutting abruptly into the next.

The A-side track has a brooding guitar melody, lush synths, and the most satisfying break I've heard in a long time. The two B-side tracks aren't so good, but the downbeat genius of 'Uplink' make this a worthy purchase. (The 12" is tricky to find, but that track's been included on Another Late Night mixes by both Kid Loco and Howie B.)

James Lavelle produces a fantastic breakbeat remix for the B-side. The powerful live drums and guitar, and the long breakdowns, give it a very epic feel. This needs to be played at maximum volume.