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Kelis Featuring Too $hort* - Bossy (Remixes) - 17-Oct-06 12:35 AM
Braxe & Falke's Earth Out Remix is the mix everybody will buy this record for. Hypnotic electrohouse with unashamedly crowdpleasing trancy synths that only they dare to use these days. Their other mix is completely different, straight 80's electrofunk that nails the era's big studio sound - maybe just a bit too well. The rest is sadly not very interesting: Switch is just plain lazy, throwing in a very dated and unoriginal mix that sounds slapped together in less than five minutes. Sebastian serves a slow hiphop-tempo mix which as an instrumental would be fine, but is sadly brought down by some awkward sounding decelerated vocals.

Thorns vs Emperor (2) - Thorns vs Emperor - 02-Oct-06 02:22 AM
The first CD is a tedious, half-assed exercise in the industrial/black metal experiments that were popular at the time, by two bands far past their prime. If they're not embarrassed looking back on this, they should be. The bonus CD however contains the old Thorns rehearsal tapes - legendary material, giving valuable insight in how the Norwegian scene developed its distinct sound and technique, moving away from simple Sodom, Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer copying. The sludgy, morbid atmosphere only adds to the fun.

Anathema - Alternative 4 - 29-Apr-06 02:07 AM
This is where things started to get pear-shaped for Anathema. Their previous album "Eternity" was largely excellent despite some weak, off-key singing. "Alternative 4" sees Vincent Cavanagh improve on his singing considerably, but one cannot escape the feeling of listening to a lost Nickelback album - the typical Anathema atmosphere of despair and depression manifests itself here as pompous hollering with annoying self-pitying lyrics, and the somewhat meandering, Pink Floyd-esque songwriting is largely streamlined into the familiar radio-friendly rock song template, with the flat, compressed production only highlighting the changes. Although traces of the "old" Anathema do pop up here and there, "Alternative 4" marks the point in their career where the band saw most of their old fanbase jump ship and began appealing to a wider rock crowd, which it continues to attract today. The band would later improve on their new formula considerably with the strong "A Fine Day To Exit". "Alternative 4" should however be interesting for fans of the likes of Creed, Nickelback and Live.

Various - Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone - 27-Apr-06 09:40 PM
Considering the big names on this tribute, this is a disgrace. There's one highlight: Gorgoroth is spot-on in a gloriously raw and sick way - but of course the song already appeared on their own "Destroyer" album. Thorns at least puts in some effort to make the track semi-interesting, but the rest ranges from half-assed to absolutely abysmal. Rather spend your money on the excellent "The Next Thousand Years Are Ours" tribute that came out at the same time.

D.O.N.S. - Pump Up The Jam - 06-Jun-05 07:54 AM
New remixes of the crappy 1997 remake of the Technotronic classic - this could only be terrible, right? Surprisingly, it's really great - definitely the best remake yet. Side A has two remakes by D.O.N.S. themselves who completely redeem their awful 1997 attempts. They go for the big room floors and throw in huge, compressed kicks and massive bass, and some nifty percussion work on the top. Side B has two very catchy Get Physical-style electrohouse remakes by Kurd Maverick, with the Wildpitch Remix as the better of the two. If you're not afraid of the cheesy overtones (but hey, if you're playing "Pump Up The Jam" you'll probably not be concerned about that!), this should fit right in your box.

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