Search - Various Artists :: Motown Remixed, Vol. 2

The perfect bad idea

Constantin Declercq | 09/05/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"When a record company doesn't know what to do, there is always somebody with the remix album idea. So Motown UK issued volume 1. This remix album isn't different from the others : at first we are curious about the changes mades with the song but that doesn't last because a remixer is a guy that replaces true musical ideas with repetitive gimmicks. Anyway Tom Moulton did a great job for «Stoned love» and «My world is empty without you» is actually good. Now comes volume 2 (a short one with short mixes : 48 min. long for 11 songs). And it's trully dreadful. Who gave the green light for such trash ? All songs have a Latin American sound that doesn't mix well with Motown. At least a sticker on the cd would have warned the buyer ! The worst is «The boss» by Ross remixed «a-la-Colombian-buseta» : they took one of the few Motown disco songs that has stood the test of time and they destroyed it ; they took off all disco elements from it, leaving the vocals naked and they put an irritating vallenato-like background that doesn't match (both keys are differents ; does the remixer Manuel Ruiz have ear ?). Luckily, this volume is available in just one form (the first volume was available in two differents cds with different tracklistings and with I.tunes bonuses). Well, I hope that this cd is the end of the series."

Boring remixes of Motown classics

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 08/17/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Perhaps a finely tuned club sound system with a fleet-fingered DJ at the helm could send these remixes soaring about the room. But played at home, these dissected, reassembled and electronically augmented versions of classic Motown tracks are more likely to send you searching for the original recordings -- forty year old tracks that will get your blood pumping faster than these cobbled together works. Unlike the multi-disc deconstruction of "Pet Sounds" that let listeners hear the vocals and instrumentals taken apart, the few transcendent moments of isolated vocal lines here are overrun by pedestrian drum machines, loops and studio manipulations that induce boredom rather than trance. This might resonate musically and emotionally with regular club visitors, but to the home listener they sound like a bad night at the Roxbury or a technologically advanced version of Stars on 45. Either way, they've squandered some of the greatest hooks in musical history. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]"