With the demise of the 12-inch single as a DJ tool, the remix has lessened in profile and there haven’t been so many monsters where the name of the remixer guarantees a must-have treat in its own right. Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve – joint alter-ego for mash-up king-DJ Erol Alkan and The Grid’s Richard Norris – pass the acid test by psychedelicising their subjects with delightfully obscure or exotic samples, extra-terrestrial effects and robust, bongo-splattered beats of a Balearic nature, limitless imagination to the fore. They prefer to call their reworkings re-animations [although it’s more like spiking], here presenting a dozen by names including the Chemical Brothers, Late Of The Pier, Tracey Thorn, Badly Drawn Boy, Simian Mobile Disco, Goldfrapp and Franz Ferdinand [sounding like Norman Whitfield dropping acid in Ibiza], even a hallucinogenic slant on Peter, Bjorn and Paul’s whistle-anthem ‘Young Folks.’
5 Out Of 5
Reviewed By: Kris Needs
