Search - Transglobal Underground :: Interplanetary Meltdown

A lost album from (alas) a lost tribe

John R. Hodgkinson | 02/08/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As befits the image of TGU as tribal music co-op, we get a bunch of remixes of "Temple Head" era TGU tracks, plus another bunch of mixes by TGU themselves, with no theme anywhere in sight (though there are a few nice segues). While the quality control knob is not at its highest setting on this disc, the standouts far outnumber the duds. And as the loose tribe that was TGU becomes a lost tribe (judging from their more recent output), it's good to have a document like Interplanetary Meltdown to remind us of better times, international or not.

Justin Robertson's Lionrock Kick da Flavour remix of International Times features beeps and glisses snakily interweaving with bass curlicues, served up to a compelling rock-steady dancebeat. Later, TGU throws in elements from Protean plus some Gyoto Monk action in their Rasa Bliss remix, taken from Grotus' Opiate of the Masses EP. And all power to Youth's Isis Mix of Temple Head: spanning the generation gap between Killing Joke and TGU, chopping the original into rock-sized units, flanging to taste, and climaxing with those joyous close-encounter UFO-summoning samples "watch the skies - tell this to everybody where ever they are!""