Reviewed for www.7bitarcade.com
This collaboration by Verve Records of thirteen jazz classics – remixed by some of the latest DJ’s and producers – is an inconsistent effort to bring old classics back to life with a new direction.
The album starts off with a fantastic version of Ella Fitzgerald performing ‘Too Darn Hot’, not straying too far from the original but just adding more depth along with a nice little guitar loop making for a great opening track that sets the bar high for what’s to follow.
So what does follow, well the Kaskade remix of Astrud Gilberto’s ‘Fly me to the Moon’ is next bringing things down to earth in what ultimately sounds like it could appear on a Ministry of Sounds Anthemsalbum, and unfortunately I don’t mean that in a good way.
The first two tracks alone sum up the extremes of this release, whereby on one hand you have remixes that are clever, exciting and embrace the whole ethos of the experimentation, but then these are almost cancelled out instantly by other artists turning famous tunes into something coming out the car of a boy racer on a Saturday night.
Some tracks just don’t seem to work, take Toro Y Moi for example who makes Billie Holiday sound like Alvin and the Chipmunks, whilst Pontus Winberg remixing Sarah Vaughan ‘Please Mr Brown’ and Mary Jane Coles’ version of ‘Blue Skies’ by Ella Fitzgerald are both rather uninspiring.
In contrast there’s something special about Nina Simone’s voice though, with all three of these remixes providing some of the albums highlights as Zeds Dead transform ‘Don’t let me be Misunderstood’ into a chilled out drum n bass number and Pretty Lights version of ‘Put a Spell on You’ provides one of the more complex tracks on offer, whereas the Bassnectar mix of ‘Feeling Good’ keeps things more simple but just as effective and in the same vein as the albums opener.
The end result of the release though is a mixed bag as it just feels as though some of the songs shouldn’t have been tampered with in the first place, whereas on the other hand there are some that could become dance floor classics.
