Coldcut
More Beats And Pieces
(Ninja Tune)
Just in case you didn't get enough from Coldcut with their Let Us Play! and Atomic Moog 2000/Boot The System discs in one year, they also released this 6-track single around nearly the same time, offering up even more versions of the most scatttershod song on the disc. Just in case you hadn't heard it yet, they somehow manage to make something cohesive-sounding out of bits from about 40 different other songs. It's fun as hell.
Although it contains 6 mixes (and one of them is a very adventurous 6-deck, 3 person mix), it really only offers up 4 really different versions on the original track and no other new tracks. Things start off with the track "Daddy Rips It Up," which is really just a shortened radio-edit sort of mix. Nothing interesting. From there, the disc gets decidingly better with the unrecognizable mix of the track by John McEntire of the group Tortoise. Instead of taking the original samples and re-arranging them, he's completely de-constructed the track and come up with something new. Sure, it doesn't even sound like Coldcut, but that's part of what's so neat about it.
From there, the track falls into turntablist land as label-mate Kid Koala gets his hand on the mix. While the original samples are recognizable in some parts, he completely rips the track apart in his signature style and adds some extra flavors of his own. Q-Bert of the Invisible Skratch Pikilz completely breaks the track to pieces as well and it becomes something entirely different (and goes by the name of "I Miss You Blobula"). Throwing in his more typical bad b-movie soundtrack samples and some funky beats and scratching, Q-Bert leaves his fingerprints all over the track (which again sounds nothing like the original).
The fifth mix is a kicking drum and bass version of the track by T Power. Taking a couple familiar sounds from the original, he twists them even more and throws it all under some smacking breakbeats. The final number is the aforementioned 3-person session that while interesting, doesn't show much variation on the original for all the people involved. Still, it's a decent amount of music and the duo are even nice enough to include the video on the disc in Quicktime format in case you hadn't seen it yet.
Rating: 6.5
