Medeski Martin and Wood’s material would seem to be perfect for the re-mix treatment. Their far-flung musical amalgam to is barely a stutter-step away from hip-hop anyway. But these guys are funky enough as it is, and any re-mix attempt would have some serious originals to live up to. The Combustication Remix EP (Blue Note 35:21) is no substitute for the original article, but this disc’s all-star list of remixers (Bill Laswell, Guru, Yuka Honda, The Automator) offers up some prettyinteresting rereadings of MMW’s last disc. Drummer Billy (“Illy B”) Martin takes a whack at the process himself, opening the disc with a deconstructive version of “Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho.” Of the others, Guru’s “Whatever Happened to Gus” the Automator’s cinematic “Nocturne,” and Laswell’s dubby version of “Satans Church of Hypnotized Logic” offer the most.
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