Interplanetary Meltdown

A remix collection after only two albums of original material suggests a lack of new ideas, and indeed, most of the best parts of Transglobal Underground's Interplanetary Meltdown come from elements of the original songs. However, this set of remixes increases the dancefloor utility of Transglobal Underground's music by considerably beefing up the beats -- Youth's pounding reconstruction "Temple Head (Isis Mix)" is the dreadlocked producer's most savage work since his days in Killing Joke -- and moving the worldbeat elements from the foreground to the middle distance. New mixes like "International Times (Lionrock Kick the Flavour)," with its nagging siren effects and upfront metallic drumbeats (think Fela Kuti on the good foot) are perhaps less unique than the originals, but by meeting the needs of the hardcore dance community halfway, Transglobal Underground made some inroads into dance-snob cliques that had previously ignored the collective's more challenging work. ~ Stewart Mason|