Back to Mine
TheBack to Mineseries has already provided some memorable compilations from a diverse collection of dance luminaries, includingMorcheeba,MJ Cole,Groove Armada, andTalvin Singh. Now, famous brothers-in-rhythm Paul and Phil Hartnoll, a.k.a. Orbital, offer up a selection of tunes that lie close to their hearts and get their heads bopping. Their effort is indulgently deep and impressively broad, and it's certainly one of the series' most eclectic offerings yet. Starting with John Barry and His Orchestra's "The Knack," we are taken through a weird and wonderful selection of tastes and styles, leaping from soundtrack to ska, rave to reggae, industrial to psychedelic, punk to pop. The intensely wide range of sounds means that the CD doesn't flow quite as mellifluously as it might, but with songs byLee Scratch Perry("Justice to the People"),the Tornadoes("Love and Fury"),PJ Harvey("Kamikaze"),the Selecter("Celebrate the Bullet"),Jethro Tull("Living in the Past"), andPlaid("New Bass Hippo"), it's still an enjoyable, sprawling, and educational album that manages to pull together a disparate but relevant bunch of pre, post, and present dance tunes.--Paul Sullivan