Apollo 440

Although billed as a Jean Michel Jarre recording, Odyssey Through 02 is actually a remix project by various artists, each taking a cut or two from his groundbreaking Odyssey album. Perhaps the reason Jarre's name is on it as one of his own is because he had final say over the end result. Here, countryman DJ Cam, Loop Guru, Apollo 440, Hani, Resistance D, the Sunday Club, and Boodjie & Veronica take elements from the classic "Oxygene," and re-create it in three "phases" completely out of sync with the source material and out of context. In other words, track ten is first and done three different times by different artists and "Oxygene 8" is done four times! DJ Cam remixes "Oxygene 7" and it is the only time it appears here; he remains somewhat faithful to the source, though he warps its time/space continuum a bit…

For over a decade now, legendary film composer Ennio Morricone has resisted the dozens of invitations from labels and artists to remix his original work - until now. Somehow the folks at Reprise were either diplomatic enough with a satisfactory aesthetic approach or had a big enough checkbook to satisfy the artist's concerns (and this writer is willing to believe it was the former). A varied cast of pioneers from electronica's vast frontier was assembled by compilation producers Stefan Rambow and Norman Rudnitzky. The first two cuts are the most obvious. There's Apollo 440's "The Man With the Harmonica," mixed out of the soundtrack for Once Upon a Time in the West. There are layers and layers of keyboards extrapolating the melody - and parts of it - with dub effects and large, deep drums and sequencers…

All credit to Gary Moore for having the courage to leap into the relative unknown with A Different Beat. It is indeed greatly removed from anything he had released prior to 1999. Perhaps it was the new-found freedom from the guitarist's contract with Virgin that fuelled the change of direction–that and Moore's obvious affinity with outfits along the lines of Apollo 440 and Fatboy Slim (to whom "Fatboy" is a tribute). There's still opportunity for some trademark axe solos, thankfully, and hearing Moore's fretwork gymnastics over contemporary dance beats is a totally unique experience. Most impressive are "Lost in Your Love," given an impassioned vocal and instrumental performance, and the blissed-out "Surrender," the other end of the emotional scale entirely.

"If the voice don't say it, the guitar will play it," raps Saffron on "Pork-U-Pine," the third track on Jeff Beck's minimally titled Jeff. And he does. Beck teams with producer Andy Wright, the man responsible for his more complete immersion into electronic backdrops on his last outing, You Had It Coming. This time the transition is complete. Beck used electronica first on Who Else!, moved a little more into the fire on You Had It Coming, and here merges his full-on Beck-Ola guitar heaviness with the sounds of contemporary spazz-out big beats and noise.

First recognized as the dance duo behind the club hits "Stakker" (as Humanoid) and "Papua New Guinea," Future Sound of London later became one of the most acclaimed and respected international experimental ambient groups, incorporating elements of techno, classical, jazz, hip-hop, electro, industrial, and dub into expansive, sample-heavy tracks, often exquisitely produced and usually without easy precursor.
Notoriously enigmatic and often disdainful of the press, the group's Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans worked their future-is-now aesthetic into a variety of different fields, including film and video, 2- and 3-D computer graphics and animation, the Internet, radio broadcast, and, of course, recorded music…

First recognized as the dance duo behind the club hits "Stakker" (as Humanoid) and "Papua New Guinea," Future Sound of London later became one of the most acclaimed and respected international experimental ambient groups, incorporating elements of techno, classical, jazz, hip-hop, electro, industrial, and dub into expansive, sample-heavy tracks, often exquisitely produced and usually without easy precursor. Notoriously enigmatic and often disdainful of the press, the group's Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans worked their future-is-now aesthetic into a variety of different fields, including film and video, 2- and 3-D computer graphics and animation, the Internet, radio broadcast, and, of course, recorded music…

First recognized as the dance duo behind the club hits "Stakker" (as Humanoid) and "Papua New Guinea," Future Sound of London later became one of the most acclaimed and respected international experimental ambient groups, incorporating elements of techno, classical, jazz, hip-hop, electro, industrial, and dub into expansive, sample-heavy tracks, often exquisitely produced and usually without easy precursor.
Notoriously enigmatic and often disdainful of the press, the group's Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans worked their future-is-now aesthetic into a variety of different fields, including film and video, 2- and 3-D computer graphics and animation, the Internet, radio broadcast, and, of course, recorded music…