VOL. 2-CHRISTMAS REMIXED
In the age of the digital cut and paste and sonic download, these assorted mixers prove that good taste in source material will get you a cooler result no matter how many rhythm tracks, horn blasts, repeated phrases and other techno smoke and mirrors you can throw at a song. Producers Jeff Daniel, Doug Bernheim, and David Hargis expertly picked some prime time pieces from the likes of jazz singer Joe Williams, the mighty organ master Jimmy McGriff, bebop king Charlie Parker and pop jazz crooners, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Rosemary Clooney, to name a just few. There are even some symphony and philharmonic orchestras whose big recordings are overlaid with alluring new flourishes that sound like they might have always been there in "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" and "Good King Wenceslas." You will probably never hear anything like Clooney's "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas," being channeled through a distant galaxy with a wreath of rhythmic and melodic aural affects, or Mahalia Jackson's saintly gospel voice turned into an etheric presence on "Silent Night." But it's guaranteed that you will be repeating again and again every alchemical track when the CD is over. Hot.--Martin Keller