Music Review

09 January 2009 23:27 BST

Delicious Vinyl All Stars: Rmxxology

Delicious Vinyl, out now.

In a nutshell...

Some classic hip-hop goes electro

What's it all about?

Delicious Vinyl were a super influential record label from the States from back when the whole world economy was crashing in the early 90s. Founded by Matt Dike and Michael Ross in 1987, they released music from the likes of Young MC and The Pharcyde and in so doing, helped redefine what hip-hop could be about. Now, the label has given a whole host of really rather cool musicians – such as Peaches, Hot Chip and Diplo – licence to hit their back catalogue and remix some classics. This double (if you opt for the deulux version – which you should) album is the fruits of those collective remix talents and very fine many of them are too.

Who's it by?

The original songs that are given a going over on this compilation are by the likes of Young MC, The Pharcyde, Bobby Evans and Tone Loc – people who made brilliant hip-hop records in the early 90s and helped define a generation. People might not now necessarily known their names, but there's a good chance they'll know some of their songs.

To bring everything up to date, People like Peaches, Mr Flash, Hot Chip, Pink Enemy and Aaron LaCrate have been asked to get involved. These are the guys making amazing electronic music who are responsible for making clubbing exciting again for the first time since everyone with a loft and Abelton Live realized they could make songs in ten minutes and started calling themselves producers.

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

The original songs involved here are classics in their own right, but it seem unlikely anyone will be lining up to give these remixes awards however amazing they are – and amazing they (mostly) are.

What the others say

"The overall result is a double CD package that should delight and dismay retro lovers in equal measure; although the hits just about outweigh the misses by virtue of that cracking second CD." - indielondon.co.uk

So is it any good?

Ever since Spank Rock starting making waves people have realized that sleazy rap and dirty electro beats are a match made in heaven. With such good original material at their finger tips they guys brought in on remix duty on this new records would have to be cack-handed fools to mess this up. Luckily, they're actually DJs at the top of their games so the results on Rmxxology are nearly uniformly amazing.

Particular highlights include Peaches reedit of Tone Loc's Wild Thing, Hot Chip's lovingly retro-centric efforts on Passin' Me Boy and anything that Mr Flash and Aaron LaCrate are let loose on (which is thankfully lots of the tracks).

Diplo again proves he is perhaps the best DJ in the world at the moment at taking good original material and turning it into something even better. His efforts on Bust A Move are so good you'll want to become a DJ, start a club night and even bother learn to mix, just so you can drop the track at 3am!

For us Brits, the other really good thing about this compilation is that you'll discover about a million Yank DJs who - despite working in a scene that is about as lively as your gran's wake - are still making bone-shakingly good electro. Debonair Samir and Breakbot both show they are capable of making beats that most people in Berlin would kill to get hold of.

In fact, the only really bum note of the record comes in the form of Eminem's effort on Slaughter. Generic beats add nothing to the original and, pearched between all the other impressive efforts, make you wonder if Shady just knocked this out while doing whatever else he's been doing since he last made a good song.

8/10

James Cooper