Rio Grande Dub Ya

Gutting the Rio Grande Blood album, then remixing the remains into a bullet train high on chaos, Rio Grande Dub actually earns higher marks than its parent, especially when the casual nature of remix albums is taken into consideration. It's been ages since Al Jourgensen and crew sounded so industrial, but thanks to all the steely shards of noise and an overall cold, dark feeling, albums like Twitch and the early work of the Revolting Cocks come to mind instead of guitars, hot rods, and Texas. Best of the throwbacks is the rework of "Khyber Pass" which anchors its swirling washes of foreign voices and tribal drums with a tense synth bassline that's perfect for driving about 85 mph. "Fear Is Big Business" is completely transformed into a more restrained nightmare while "Gangreen" gets the dirty bomb treatment and ends up sounding like golden age Meat Beat Manifesto. It's also the only track that comes close to touching upon the "dub" mentioned on the cover, which is really just an awesome excuse to picture George W. with dreadlocks in front of a Jamaica-style soundsystem. Jourgensen only gets credit for the original tracks since remixing is handled by Clayton Worbeck from Stayte and the Cocks along with John Bechdel from Fear Factory and Prong. ~ David Jeffries