Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)

This historic compilation of classic Chicago blues from six decades brought through contemporary recording terms is a loving, two-CD set of music that is not interpreted or reinvented as it is played faithfully to the core. A fairly set rhythm section featuring guitarist Billy Flynn, bassist Felton Crews, and drummer Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith, backs modern-day living legends like Billy Boy Arnold, Lurrie Bell, Billy Branch, and John Primer on tunes penned by both Sonny Boy Williamsons, Big Bill Broonzy, Big Maceo Merriweather, Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, the Hooker Brothers, Buddy Guy, and others. Considerable help is given by harmonicist Matthew Skoller (brother of producer Larry Skoller,) keyboardist Johnny Iguana, vocalist Mike Avery (cousin of Magic Sam), and lead guitarist Carlos Johnson…

The Brighton Port Authority is yet one more way that Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim, aka Beats International) has found to gather world-class musical weirdos around him and collaborate with them on the creation of funky, hooky, wave-your-hands-in-the-air dance pop. Unlike his other projects, though, this one apparently stretches way back into the 1970s, when many of the rough tracks on this collection were originally recorded. Over the years, Cook and his collaborator Simon Thornton worked with such disparate singers and songwriters as Iggy Pop, Martha Wainwright, David Byrne and Pete York, and though a good amount of this material was clearly added in much more recently (Dizzee Rascal's contribution to "Toe Jam," for example, is clearly not of 1970s vintage, nor does Iggy Pop sound like the young man he would have been back then), there's a sense of anarchic fun to the proceedings that is very much reminiscent of the best music of the '70s and '80s.