On Fatboy Slim's "That Old Pair of Jeans" EP, a mixed bag of talented remixers re-test the remix waters that Fatboy notably created, reaching the light of both radio airplay and club floors around the world.
While not every track will please Fatboy's devoted fan base, each track does provide another perspective added to an already overflowing pile of remixed Fatboy tracks to have come out over the years.
On the title track, "That Old Pair of Jeans," the wimpy 3:40 "edit" provides but a small taste of what the funkier longer version would sound like, only it's, um, shorter. Mr. Lateef The Truthspeaker's vocals integrated with a gospel sampling and a funkier than thou (possibly) Hammond organ arrangement makes this one of two stand-out tracks.
The second stand-out track, "Right Here Right Now," as remixed by one of my favorite remix artists, Freemasons, reminds me of the old NBC show "Knight Rider" due largely in part to the first few synthesized opening bars from the remix and the show's theme song that featured, among other things, a talking Trans-Am aptly or oddly named "KITT." Thankfully, though, the Freemasons remix veers in a whole other direction.
I was hoping that Beastie Boys Adrock & Mike D's rendition of the third track, "Praise You" would hopefully breathe some kind of new life into an already over-remixed track but unfortunately I found myself giving the track a minute sampling before moving on.
The fourth track, "Everybody Needs a 303" as remixed by Plump DJs was filled with way too much noise and not enough direction—namely anything that could be danced to.
The fifth and final track off the EP, "Right Here Right Now" as interpreted by Redanka reminded me—in a good way—of the underscore or backdrop to some thriller-esque movie trailer rather than picturing me on some dance floor.
Alright, so I dug three out of the five tracks, but I never whole-heartedly got into Fatboy Slim mostly due to my own version of ADD in the dance musical sense of the "attention" part. And while I do own a few of Norman Cook's maxi single hits, namely, Star 69 and What the F*ck, I've never been a dedicated fan. With that said, I'd recommend the EP anyway because like I said before, I was down with
