BT
Rare & Remixed
Nettwerk
In 2000, BT (Brian Transeau) made the dance world take notice with the release of Movement in Still Life. For those of us who were unfamiliar with his work with Deep Dish, we were invigorated by the album’s fresh, electronic sound and BT’s skills. Capitalizing on his newfound fame, Nettwerk has released a quasi greatest hits, chronicling BT’s remixes and original works from 1995 to today. Transeau has leant his Midas touch to such artists as Sarah McLachlan, Seal, Mike Oldfield, and Paul van Dyk and has worked with good ole Sasha and Tori Amos.
Andy Gray (who’s worked with New Order and Paul Oakenfold) jumps in and remixes the collection into one continuous dance track. While his skills are admirable and BT’s body of work is definitely impressive, this disc shows the glaring weakness of dance music. The genre is just too damned temporal and popularity too fleeting to be relevant six or seven years away from a song’s original release. Don’t get me wrong. There’s some fine, danceable music on this two-CD set. Grace’s “Not Over Yet” is an enjoyable progressive tune, and Prana’s “The Dream” is too soulful for its own good. But the remixes of Seal and McLachlan are simply regrettable.
Overall, though, it’s an enjoyable set that definitely exhibits BT’s talents. It’s just that R & R, at times, can feel really, really dated, and unless you were in love with a given song when it was first released, you’ll wonder why they appear at all on the album. It’s hard to fondly reminisce about something you never experienced in the first place. BT, and we, would’ve been better off if he just released a new album, because R & R somewhat dampens the appetite for a new BT work.
Nettwerk Records: http://www.nettwerkamerica.com
