The parliament of the European Community sets some pretty bizarre regulations. The Brussels bureaucrats have regulated the curvature of bananas, the length of a cucumber, the smelliness of Gorgonzola. With such things standardized, life in the European Union is supposed to be tranquil. Each European, whether born in Dijon or Dåahus, wakes up singing Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" and contributes all his or her being to the greater good of the European homeland. No wonder those guys need the United Nations (read: the U.S. armed forces) to keep them from nuking each other.

Funkstörung is a collaborative project funded in part by the European Ministry of Yoof Culture. I mean, if youthful Europeans are gonna go out clubbing and get ripped to the tits on euphorics and stimulants, they'd better do so to EU-regulated beats, right?

So, in a 1992 committee meeting, the German cultural attaché and her Italian counterpart tabled the Funkstörung proposal. From an applicant pool of several hundred European leftfield DJs and producers, two were chosen. German Michael Fakesch and Italian Chris De Luca met each other not in a government office, but in a techno club. The government officials deemed that their getting- to- know- you process would move more swiftly away from the institutional building where their musical collaboration had been bullet- pointed, agenda'd, misfiled in triplicate, and finally, ministerially approved.

Though Fakesch and De Luca have produced a small series of 12- inchers for the Music aus Strom label, their main contribution to the cultural life of the joyous European Union has been their remixes. Additional Productions collects them in one handy 5" disc.

Sticking to their parliamentary mandate, they've employed all the EU- approved avant-ish clicks, pops, scratches, crunches, cracks, snaps, and whirs. So whether they're remixing Bjork's "All is Full of Love," the Wu-Tang Clan's "Reunited," East Flatbush Project's "Tried by Twelve" or Finitribe's "Mind My Make Up," you're assured of getting the elegant, but identical, quality product. As uncollected singles, these tracks would stand out from the usual remix toss (y'know, the ubiquitous "Club 69" mix, or Junior Vasquez churning out yet another product from his infamous Sound Factory). But though the source material may vary, the- one- style- fits- all Funkstörung process gives this album a high- quality blandness.

And does it really matter that Funkstörung sound like Autechre lite? Well, sort of, yes. The thrill of listening to Autechre is that sometimes their industrial tendencies get the better of them and their humanity gets consumed by their algorithmically- driven machines. At other times, Autechre take the same clangs and crunches far away into serendipitous beauty. But with Funkstörung, you always know exactly what you're getting. What a boon in these days of such bewildering consumer choices! The Brussels bureaucrats successfully regulated the curvature of the banana, and with the success of the Funkstörung project, European electronica now has a similar, perfect 38- degree curve.

-Paul Cooper