Carrera Remixed

This remix version of Patrick Pulsinger and Erdam Tunakan's classic Sluts'N'Strings & A 909 album, Carrera, calls in the talents of various hometown artist in what could be considered a Viennese tour de force. Though opening with a slicing digital edit by Londoner Si Begg, and featuring remixes of "Dig This!?" and "Crunchy Custom" by U.K. drill'n'bass practitioners Animals on Wheels, the rest of the re-workings stay closer to home. Bavarian technocrat DJ Hell turns in a mix of "Past the Gate" that is surprisingly less acid house than the original (which was extremely acid house), while Vienna residents Private Lightning 6 take the same track and break it down to a futuristic punk/hip-hop/industrial rev-up that is light years ahead of the nu-wave revivalist. One-half of Austria's most well-known export, Peter Kruder, treats "Put Me On" exactly how you'd expect he would, slowing the nu-breaks funk to a more palatable dub tempo. Inversely, lesser-known Vienna musicians Sluta Leta and Farmers Manual make severe digital damage out of the originals "Puta" and "Dig This!?," perhaps explaining why they are lesser-knowns. By commissioning these remixes, Sluts'N'Strings & A 909 do an excellent job in showcasing the impossibly talented scene in which they work. The only thing lost in the remix is the smooth continuity that made the original Carrera such a joy to listen to from beginning to end. But this isn't a complaint so much as a statement of the obvious.