If you're founding a new nation, e pluribus unum ("out of many, one") is a noble and winning principle. From many disparate cultures, you will forge a single unified populace. Your nation will be founded on the basic common needs of humanity: the need for shelter, food, water, love, and Cajun-spiced curly fries. Your people will not see difference, they will see homogeneity. They will be of a loving, peaceful nature, because they will have chosen to transcend their idiosyncratic backgrounds and belong to a greater whole.

However noble e pluribus unum may be in nation-building, though, it's a lousy principle when it comes to music, as Jesus Life for Children Under Twelve Inches amply demonstrates. This disc is a collection of remixes by French easy-listener and trip-hopper, Kid Loco (aka ex-punk Jean-Yves Prieur), and it showcases Loco's ability to miss the point of remixing.

Remixing, if it has a purpose beyond shameless marketing, is meant to make the source material more interesting to a different sector of the music-buying public. It's a cross-over tactic that only works if the remixer makes the source music more appealing. And throughout the duration of this record, I found myself more interested in the originals than Loco's boo-di-bip lounge-hop versions.

The dancing-Shiva Bollywood strings of Talvin Singh's "Traveller" are Loco-ized in an identical manner to the poverty shuffle of Scottish indie stars, the Pastels. Loco's dissection of Mogwai's "Tracy" is blunted and made ready for polyester easy-listening dolts everywhere. From Pulp's dole-queue masterpiece, This is Hardcore Kid Loco swipes "A Little Soul," mislaying the grit and anguish of Jarvis Cocker's performance.

You can't help but notice that the cover of Jesus Life for Children Under Twelve Inches is a sweet trolley of luscious naked women, the likes of which haven't been seen since Hendrix's Electric Ladyland. I'd guess that this cover is the only thing that will catch anyone's attention. E pluribus unum-- out of many sources comes one homogenous blandness. Let's wish Loco better luck founding a nation.

-Paul Cooper