Creatures Hybrids CD

HYBRIDS contains remixed versions of tracks on The Creatures' ANIMA ANIMUS and ERASER CUT.

Remix albums often can be cynical exercises, lacking even tacit approval from the original bands in question while hired hands spin out boring extended versions for little more than the money. Happily, Hybrids takes a much different approach. As Doug H. of Hydrogen Dukebox, the coordinator of the project, puts it in the liner notes, screening who wanted to participate was simplicity itself: "If they couldn't sing 'Mad-Eyed Screamer' down the phone, I hung up." Assured of actual fan participation and a willingness to really get creative work, the Creatures gave Doug H. the go-ahead and this is the truly entertaining result. Tracks all come from the Creatures' late-'90s work on Anima Animus and Eraser Cut, and while some tracks seem to use only Sioux's vocals instead of Budgie's drums, the end results generally make a fine adjunct to the original recordings. Among the more well-known figures, one of the more interesting results comes from the Black Dog collective. Apparently not so much dead as merely resting, they tweak "Guillotine" into an entertainingly chaotic collage of glitch techno, dub, and woozy psychedelia. Howie B kicks off the album as a whole with an appropriately dramatic, slinky revamp of "Prettiest Thing," while the Witchman serves up both a "radio-friendly" and a drum'n'bass "4x4" version of "Say." Obscurer folks working on Hybrids have their own moments of glory as well. Chamber's take on "Slipping Away" keeps both Sioux and ...