Sml xl

SML is the quintet of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann.

SML is the quintet of bassist Anna Butterss, synthesist Jeremiah Chiu, saxophonist Josh Johnson, percussionist Booker Stardrum, and guitarist Gregory Uhlmann.

Flush from remixing Elvis to his 30th number one with A Little Less Conversation as JXL, Dutch DJ Tom Holkenborg turned down a request from the Beatles to remix something of theirs and instead reverted to his full moniker for this fantasy league of his favourite vocalists. Along similar lines to Oakenfold's similarly star-studded 2001 Bunkka, the album is based on an imaginary pirate broadcast and mixes Holkenborg's dance/trance sculptures with trademark vocals from the likes of Dave Gahan, Peter Tosh, Solomon Burke and Chuck D, with a real Cure-y jewel in the one sung by Robert Smith, Perfect Blue Sky. Holkenborg reinvents Gary Numan as a trance star and, in a real coup, coaxes Terry Hall into at last revisiting his fabulous early-Specials ska sound for Never Alone. Less successfully, there are a mystifying three awkward contributions from Republica's Saffron, and an accompanying chillout disc is mostly dull. But for all its wobbles and indulgence, this is infinitely superior to a JXL mix of, say, Maxwell's Silver Hammer.