The Beloved Mashenge

In 1990, the duo of Steve Waddington and Jon Marsh released its debut album Happiness under the name the Beloved, and found modest success by combining light, Erasure-style dance-pop with Marsh's breathy vocals and atmospheric arrangements. Following the release of a remix album Blissed Out (also from 1990), Waddington left the band, and was replaced by Jon Marsh's wife Helena Marsh just in time for the recording of the group's follow-up, the lifeless Conscience. The 1993 release largely abandoned the Beloved's pop approach in favor of more ambient soundscapes, limiting the album's appeal. (Jon Marsh's distant, uninvolved vocal style certainly didn't help, making the album sound cold and uninviting.) Unfortunately, the Beloved's third album X continues in this tradition…

The collected anthology from the innovative group from the late 1980's and early 1990's that includes all their hits and more. The Beloved are a British electronic group best known for the singles "Sweet Harmony", "The Sun Rising", "Hello", "Your Love Takes Me Higher", and "Satellite". Originally a post-punk/new wave band formed in 1983, they underwent a change in direction in the late 1980s to a house/alternative dance sound and experienced chart success inside and outside of the UK.

2008 five CD set from Dame Janet Baker, the British mezzo-soprano who has achieved international fame and adulation from generations of music fans.

Remix albums often can be cynical exercises, lacking even tacit approval from the original bands in question while hired hands spin out boring extended versions for little more than the money. Happily, Hybrids takes a much different approach. As Doug H. of Hydrogen Dukebox, the coordinator of the project, puts it in the liner notes, screening who wanted to participate was simplicity itself: "If they couldn't sing 'Mad-Eyed Screamer' down the phone, I hung up." Assured of actual fan participation and a willingness to really get creative work, the Creatures gave Doug H. the go-ahead and this is the truly entertaining result. Tracks all come from the Creatures' late-'90s work on Anima Animus and Eraser Cut, and while some tracks seem to use only Sioux's vocals instead of Budgie's drums, the end results generally make a fine adjunct to the original recordings.