An oddity of a CD, indeed... BT actually dives down the road most of the other "big names" have at least once in the past decade, and that's toss together a mash-up club-style nonstop mix of tracks that were all pretty much electronic ballads originally on the parent album 'These Hopeful Machines'. I'll admit, I didn't see it coming since it's not really "him", so let's call this an experiment.
In short, it works, with a few caveats. All the remixes seem very deliberate to use the original and unaltered voice samples, which is the absolute must-have key connection with the parent album. A lot of the power there came from the almost storyteller-type feeling as each long section ran into the next, and that's still there (but in differing ordering, obviously). Because of the separated nature of the stereotypical remix the transitions are a lot more blunt, but never painfully so.
What I'm left with here is for all these remixes to be un-mixed and separated and made together into the same unique format as their first forms. Each song is almost completely recreated from scratch, and the whole endless 4/4 beat thing feels like an unnecessary distraction. The whole "clean" track is often audible behind the beat and I was left just wanting to yank it away and get a more ambient experience.
That's all really nitpicking, I know. It's hard not to want more, which is exactly the problem! We're getting teased all over again via a fresh grooming of something that was such a piece of art that there'll always be some oddity you feel but can't quite put your finger on. Another iteration of the original album, please! I can't imagine anyone that had a good experience with the original not getting the same here, and for anyone here finding this album without any prior BT experience I'd suggest you check out 'These Hopeful Machines' first because of its amazing overall arrangement.
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