The Bristol- based duo Alpha made their stateside debut in 1997 with Come from Heaven, the first release from Massive Attack's Melankolic label. The album boasted a sophisticated blend of thick trip-hop beats, syrupy strings, and a rotating cast of vocalists. If on paper this formula should have amounted to a carbon copy of Massive Attack, in practice Alpha have distinguished their vision in two ways: first, by broadening their sound to incorporate samples from '60s pop icons like Burt Bacharach and Jimmy Webb; second, by gathering some of the most cliched, lightweight vocal performances ever committed to tape.

Pepper compiles five remixes of Come From Heaven tunes plus three rare tracks. As with the record from which it culls the raw materials, this EP ain't nothing to write home about. In fact, Pepper is one of those offensively innocuous CDs that slip by the censors at young record labels every once in a while. At least Tricky can piss people off. In 44 minutes, Alpha inspires nothing short of listlessness and ennui.

Pepper suffers from the same poor choice of vocalists evidenced last time around. On the Underdog's remixes of "With" and "Slim," pseudo-diva Helen White's contributions are overly emphatic and stiff, and fellow- Melankolic rapper Lewis Parker is predictably sophomoric, like an English Puff Daddy. And we won't even dignify with discussion the insipid pitter- patter of Martin Barnhard, whose voice bears a striking resemblance to Terry Hall on Tricky's Nearly God misfire.

When the guest vocalists shut their traps (which isn't often), the tunes are hit and miss. Tim Simenon adds depth and warmth to "Sometime Later" with harp and vibraphone textures, and the title track (culled from 1995) works pretty well by sticking to Alpha's trip-hop/ pop formula. However both "Honey" and the More Rockers remix of "Hazeldub" are tedious drum-n-bass excursions relying on the more overused ideas from Techno for Dummies.

So what does a rating of 1.6 mean? Well, it doesn't mean that Pepper is twice as good as the new Belle and Sebastian album (see my fellow Pitchforker's misguided review of The Boy with the Arab Strap). On the contrary, it means that Pepper is light- years behind the energy and inventiveness of Tricky's Angels With Dirty Faces, as limp as Bob Dole, and about as essential as Hanson's Three Car Garage. In short, you'd be better off blowing that hard- earned Alexander Hamilton on a cheesy blockbuster, burnt popcorn, and Tang.

-Zach Hammerman