What Is Hip?- Re:Mix Project Vol. 1 CD

If you want to make it onto the next volume of Warner's What Is Hip?: Remix Project (the cover here says "Volume One," so let's assume), here is the not-so-secret formula. Start with a trippy and serene intro that you'll put under the main tune later, then drop in the original song's intro so everyone goes, "oh, it's that song!" then lightly dust your radio staple with electronic beats and bleeps. You can use a line from the song's chorus and echo it over your hypnotic breakdown if you like, but whatever you do, don't mess with the original too much. With nearly everyone playing it so safe, What Is Hip? is the sound of AM-radio electronica with just a smidgeon of camp -- a smidgeon that disappears on the second run-through of this bland exercise in updating. Three exceptions to the rule are Philip Steir and Ramin Sakurai's reggae-lite treatment of Devo's "Whip It," Halou's impression of what cheeky disco man Mousse T would have done with Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?," and Mocean Worker's skeletal and twitchy rework of Charles Wright's "Express Yourself." Holding out hope that the revered Nightmares on Wax or Meat Beat Manifesto might come up with something exciting proves fruitless, and What Is Hip? ends up not being so much bad as totally forgettable and unnecessary. ~ David Jeffries

Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" has been begging for a campy, electronic update for years, but not "Summer Breeze" or "Midnight at the Oasis." Stewart gets the heavy thump treatment on What Is Hip?, but almost all the other remixers tune into the AM-radio sentimentality of the material they're given and lightly dust their breezy numbers with trippy electronics. The collection is generally safer than expected, but Devo's "Whip It" gets a surprising reggae-lite treatment and Mocean Worker steals the show with his skeletal and twitchy remix of Charles Wright's "Express Yourself." ~ David Jeffries

RE: MIX VOL. 1 features dance versions of 70's pop songs remixed by DJ Malibu, Halou, Philip Steir, Cucia, Deepsky, Boozoo Bajou, Conjure One, Supremem Beings Of Leisure, Mocean Worker, Soul Holligan, Meat Beat Manifesto, Nic Jodoin, and Nightmares On Wax.