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- Verified Buyer
It is gratifying to see that the songs of Yoko Ono, once considered too weird for mainstream acceptance, have been adapted to form these dance tracks. Here we have the once-dreaded Japanese performance artist as a dance-floor diva, with her songs used as the basis for some delightful hardcore remixes. One probable reason for her success in this genre is that Yoko uses her voice truly as an instrument, and so her vocals enhance these remixes more than the voices of most singers would.Some of the tracks adhere to the basic song structures and melodies of the original recordings, including the Basement Jaxx "Everyman Everywoman", the Felix Da Housecat "Walking On Thin Ice" (vocals enhanced), and Pet Shop Boys "Walking On Thin Ice", which sparkles with quivering, shimmering synths. Others diverge greatly, with interesting results. The Bimbo Jones "You're The One" is a good bit faster than the original, but the melody is basically intact. It is a good opener for the album. On "Hell In Paradise" by Peter Rauhofer, most of the lyrics are recited, not sung, against an appropriately sinister instrumental track. In the verses of Morel's "Give Me Something" one measure of silence has been inserted between each line, thus adding to their gravity; but the other lyrics have been taken apart and reassembled to form something different. On Murk's "Everyman Everywoman", Superchumbo's "Kiss Kiss Kiss" and Danny Tenaglia's "Walking On Thin Ice", the sung lyrics are similar to the originals but the music has very little resemblance.I noticed that starting with #7, Sapphirecut's "I Don't Know Why", the tracks exhibit an industrial and scarier sound, with primitive overtones - not primitive musically, but primitive as in "outside civilization". When I first listened to these, I tried to imagine that I was a teenager participating in a modern rave. Instead I found myself thinking of a torchlit cave in centuries B.C., somewhere in the Fertile Crescent, attending a pagan religious ritual, complete with orgiastic rites and human sacrifice. I know it sounds preposterous, but I let my mind wander and that's where it took me.The final track is a remix of "Give Peace A Chance". Its position at the end of the album suggests to me that it was not intended to compete with the other tracks but was meant to be simply another commercial for world peace, Yoko's pet cause. The album ends with Yoko saying, "Let's come together, and work it out." Amen to that.
