Various Artists - 839 Remixes

For those of you who are yet to acquaint yourselves with Justice and Metro's original 839 album, you're missing out on a selection of technoid minimalist D&B that you really need in your life. Unless you're only about the jump-up, in which case you might as well stop reading this right now, because there's nothing for you here.

The danger with a remix album, especially one including multiple versions of the same tracks, is that the end product is going to feel like filler, not adding anything to the original musical experience. After all, you might think, if it ain't broke, don't remix it. Well, to put it ungrammatically, you've got another think coming.

The remixers have really imprinted their own style onto the tracks, meaning that what we get are completely fresh visions which just happen to use some of the same sounds and ideas as the originals. Take the two mixes of the title track 839, for example. Zoon Van Snook's take is a glitchy, stuttering piece, with spacey atmospherics providing a counterpoint to the grinding overdriven synth at the heart of the tune. The 242 remix, on the other hand, is a full-on get-the-fuck-up 4/4 workout. If I hadn't seen the tracklisting I'd wouldn't even have know they were reworks of the same tune.

There are so many styles and flavours on this album that it's impossible to categorise it. On a personal level, the standout tracks for me were the beautiful, floaty remix of Human Thinking by Dominic Ridgway, and the legendary PFM's mix of Touch Feel which captures the essence of his early Good Looking releases.

Basically, if you're not a single-genre fundamentalist, then you'll love this release. It takes you on a journey through sounds from house, techno, breaks, and D&B, in a collection with is as much for the listener as it is for the dancefloor.