(Against the Grain/Shock)

The album was a club success as well as a massive video success with the spontaneous dancing of ‘Push Up’ creating a new dancing in the streets fad.  After much floor time and about as much time on popular radio stations it was only a matter of time before the popular breaks release of the year got better with a special edition remix disc for punters to peruse.

The package comes with the original retail version of ‘Raw as F**k’ with the addition of a remix disc, on which this review will be focusing on.  The remix disc is being marketed as including ‘rare remixes by Plump Djs, Roni Size, Krafty Kuts and many more…’ – the others included on the disc are: Poxy Music, Breakafastaz, Deekline, Clipz as well as Aquasky V Masterblaster.  As promised the release offers up an array of new mixes of the Freestylers already top notch album, kicking off with Poxy Music’s remix of ‘Get a life’ that incorporates a huge scratch filler at the start of the song and uses the female vocals to bounce exclusively with the bass.  Following on is Krafty Kuts turn to remix a classic, their mix of ‘Punks’ is darker, more electronic and the female vocal backings have been ignored by Krafty’s.  There is a hard hip hop moment in the mix where the vocals are subdued to almost blippy fragments of vocal samples and bounced around an old school beat.

Then came the Plump Djs with their remix of ‘Push Up’, the money maker of the disc and bopper favourite.  In true Plumps style the mix is electronic and takes some time for the vocals to kick in, with a new beat and samples from tracks from like ‘The Gate’ and ‘Electro Disco’ as well as a few others combining with some electronic Kraftwerk-esk samples.  The samples are used brilliantly, the deep beat and fragmented vocals work awesomely together but it feels rushed and lacking finesse with sampled from other Plumps tracks holding the mix together like super glue.  Following on directly is Breakafastaz remix of ‘Warrior Charge’ that’s faster, harder and generally a drum ‘n’ bass remix of a slower song.  It works, the female vocals are used in conjunction with the pianos and it works, very well.

Next up is a remix of ‘Boom Blast’ from Deekline & Wizard feat. Yolanda, a deeper beat introduces the track but slows down as the lyrics boom and blast into an electronic feast of beats, electric samples combined with some orchestral samples.  The female vocals in this track have been sped up slightly to fit the new beat and is pulled off with brilliance and blasting consequences.  The other hip-hop remix is given to Aquasky V. Masterblaster with their remix of ‘No Replica’ that is again electronic and faster, yet manages to keep the essence of the original track there.

‘The Slammer’ is remixed by Clipz; its just crazy beats, near trance samples  and fast paced bass. To follow up from this is  an effort in itself, however a second remix of ‘Get a Life’ is done by Roni Size to conclude the disc.  It’s a drum ‘n’ bass mix that’s deep and fun, a perfect conclusion, it offers up new beats but the some samples such as ‘are you a total addict’ and keeps the original female vocals.  The disc is dotted with awesome mixes from some big names, definitely a reason to buy this album if you don’t have it already!