Various Artists
Bond Beat and Bass
[Hypnotic]
Rating: 3.8
Let's face facts. Bond is stylish. Pure, taut, catlike masculinity edged with humor
and taste. He's been with us for what seems like forever and even my mother recognizes
the name. She gushes and flushes, telling me that Roger Moore is the best looking man
she ever met, eyelids fluttering like she just found that perfect leather handbag for
75% off. Disgusting.
I assert to you, avid reader and trepan candidate, that there comes with this cache a
certain stylistic responsibility. To rend a Bondian gem into pieces and reform it
under your own interpretation, that is a both a supreme gesture of respect and a
supreme risk. On this compilation a number of remix artists and techno genii certainly
rend with abandon, but most forget their stylistic responsibility, letting the
original style that most of these tracks possessed in original form slip forever
through the cracks.
What you get for your buck is 11 Bond themes from various movies, remixed by the boys
and girls that do these things. Sounds great. I was pumped. But, rather than
recognizing the strength of a track and building upon it, you wind up listening to a
lot of average, tired technoisms beating style into submission. Martinis give way to
water bottles, the straight crease and sharp smirk submit to baggy pants and the
toothy grin of oblivion. Moby proved that Bond and techno can work together, but with
the exception of one or two contributions, Bond Bass and Beats is an infinitely
flat techno comp, not even considering its weak Bond connection.
-James P. Wisdom