These last six months have seen remix after bloody remix pour through the Pitchfork Stereo Time Machine in an endless stream the likes of which even DJ Krush has never seen. Just when it seemed like every artist on the planet had received their own remix disc, we'd get five new ones. But since cover albums have been continually dissed by fans and critics alike, the remix disc seems the logical (and cool) way to pay homage to musical heroes. Of course, just as it is (and always will be) with cover albums, the results often fail to meet people's expectations.

But not so, in this case. See, certain electronic labels have rosters of artists that can do little wrong, and one of those esteemed labels is, naturally, the lovely Ninja Tune out of good old England. Now, not all of the artists on this fine album are official Ninjas themselves-- Pan Sonic have found their home on Mute Records, Oval kick it with Chicago's Thrill Jockey label, even the Sakamoto tunes you'll find mixed on Prayer/Salvation were released by Sony Classical. Thing is, Ninja Tune never fails to find the right people for the job.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves-- first and foremost, you oughta know that Ryuichi Sakamoto's a master composer and producer. He got his start recording with the strange electronic outfit Yellow Magic Orchestra in the late '70s, he then recorded a bunch of solo records, composed an award- winning score for "The Last Emperor" along with the Talking Heads' David Byrne, invented a new musical genre which he dubbed "neo-geo," and later released an amazing classical piece, called Discord, with four movements-- "Anger," "Grief," "Prayer" and "Salvation." This is the second of two discs of Discord remixes released by Ninja Tune. (The first, Anger/Grief featured Amon Tobin, Chocolate Weasel and Talvin Singh, and obviously, focused on the first two movements of Discord. As evidenced by its title, this disc takes care of the last two movements.)

Prayer/Salvation, clocking in at just over 50 minutes, is quite a bit longer than its predecessor, and certainly more diverse. Ashley Beedle's "Heaven and Earth" mix boasts a funky bassline, super- charged African hip-hop percussion and an assload of synth. Things slow down for J Swinscoe's "The Real McCoy" mix-- a track that's just as jazzy as anything off Amon Tobin's masterpiece, Bricolage. The Fink serves up a slab of post- apocalyptic wax, incorporating more of the original Sakamoto pieces than anything else on the entire album-- his version adds some beautifully spooky reverb and scary sound effects (and, after a couple of minutes, some nice, clean drum-n-bass), and sounds great against Sakamoto's elegant string section. Pan Sonic weigh in with their trademark minimalism, providing three of their own seperate movements to "Prayer." Andrea Parker comes by to give "Grief" a bizarre goth twist. And Oval says "to hell with it all," condensing all four of Discord's movements into six of the creepiest minutes ever burned onto compact disc.

It's definitely no lie that most of these tracks shouldn't actually be considered true "remixes" of Sakamoto's work-- music from and inspired by Ryuichi Sakamoto's Discord might have been a better title. But it's all good, you guys. A little exaggeration never hurt anyone.

-Ryan Schreiber