Abductions & Reconstructions
It's fitting that Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, the duo behind Thievery Corporation, run both a club and a label that have the name Eighteenth Street Lounge: all of the music (which shares the same dubby, acid-jazz flavor) on the label is perfectly suited to the club.Abductions and Reconstructions, however, is different from previous ESL releases, such asDubbed Out in D.C., in that it's easily the label's most accessible album to date. It consists of 15 Thievery remixes of artists from Stereolab to David Byrne to Baba Maal and tends to be a lot more active than the duo's original compositions. Still, the tracks here bear only a passing resemblance to their original forms--in Thievery's hands, the songs are drawn out, tranced up, mellowed down, but each has its own flavor. The end result is an album that's both diverse and consistent and completely enjoyable. You could just as easily dance to these tracks as sit and lounge to them--the perfect soundtrack for either a great bar or your next party.--Randy Silver