From Amazon.co.uk
As the title suggests,
All Mixed Up is a retrospective of hip-hop from
DJ Spinna's remix career. One of the finest exponents of that manic cut 'n' slash style that marries dextrous flashes of turntable manipulation with subtle bombs of post-bop melody and noise, Spinna is a versatile producer who can pull rabbits from many hats. He manages to improve Cooly's Hot Box's lovely house track "Make Me Happy" and the palatial hip-hop of
De la Soul's "Stakes are High" and makes you smile at the same time. Both tracks have bass lines that'll snake their way down through your ears and on into your hips. Elsewhere he reconstructs chilled tracks from
Ronny Jordan and
Mos Def,
Shirley Bassey and
Beth Orton, simultaneously pushing the tempo into overdrive but keeping the style jazzy and rootsy. However, like most remixers, Spinna has the misfortune of trying to flip "tired cash-cows" in new and inventive ways. This means wading through dull acid jazz (
Urban Species), a lop-sided pop cover of
Stevie Wonder's "As" (
George Michael and
Mary J Blige) and rather too many stoner instrumentals. As much as you want to love this album,
All Mixed Up suffers a little from slap-dash quality control. --
Reuben Dessay
Album Details
UK compilation represents all of DJ Spinna's remixes to date & highlights his diverse skills & the different artists he's worked with on this special collection. 45 top tracks on two CDs all superbly mixed in Spinna's unique way, including Terranova, Les