RE-WORKS

Rejects!

There are two camps with this collection, one which sees it as a great updating of the works of ELP, and one which sees it as rambling drivel. I'm afraid I fall into the latter, apparently more populated group!

I don't have any hang ups about the re-mixing of ELP's work. With the many talented re-mixers around today, I'm sure their music could be presented in a whole new and dynamic way. The trouble is, this collection fails to do that. All it does is takes a few snippets of tracks, and repeats them over and over again. It's all terribly dull and boring.

The third disc consists only of 5 different remixes of "Fanfare for the common man", which appears (at least) twice already on the preceding discs! Even a great track such as this can be reduced to a tedious ordeal when converted to a repetitive noodle, and heard five consecutive times.

For some reason, the collection is presented as a three CD set, when it would have fitted comfortably onto two. If you want to hear ELP at their best, stick to the original albums.

I borrowed this out of interest from my local library as I had not come across it before - and now I wish I hadn't.

It basically consists of bits of ELP cut up and mixed in with floaty keyboards to make 3 CDs worth of chill-out tracks. You can't always tell which bits of which songs have been used, although I picked out the guitar from "From the Beginning" and bits of "Endless Enigma". One of the tracks features someone who sounds like Greg Lake talking! Most of the tracks are boring and repetitive

The worst thing of all about this collection is that it features 7 (yes, seven) different remixes of "Fanfare for the Common Man" - one on each of the first 2 CDs, then CD 3 which just consists of 5 further remixes of a track that I found a bit boring in the first place!

Overall, this might appeal to someone who wants a very long chill out album featuring bits of ELP or someone who loves "Fanfare" enough to want 7 different versions, but real ELP fans should not touch this with the proverbial barge pole.

Oh, I wish I could have been at the meeting where the band and their record company decided to release this little gem. "Hey, I have an idea: Let's remix old ELP material and sell it to the small percentage of our fanbase that has remained loyal." "Great idea, but I think for it to work, we need to erase any traces of talent or even enjoyment." And that's how Re-Works was born. If you stumbled upon this release and actually spent money on it, you have my deepest condolences. I managed to escape with a free listen, but the experience is worth more than gold.

This album is a new low for a band that seems to actively try to kill their credibility. Fans of Fanfare For the Common Man can rejoice as their beloved tune is redone 7 times at varying levels of sacrilege and aural torture. I wouldn't be surprised if this was blaring over the PA at Guantanamo Bay. I know I'd reveal any information I had if the bad men would just make it stop. Forcing others to listen to this has to violate the Geneva Convention.

The experience of listening to this has left me with shellshock. If the draft is ever brought back, you can get out of it by walking into the recruitment office listening to this. They'll declare you a Section 8 and you can stay home. If you cherish the memory of ELP, spare yourself from this. I now regard ELp like Biff Loman regarded his father Willy in Death of a Salesman after the boy discovers his father's affair.

Grade: F

I almost never make short reviews but in this case I will make an exception because......What can I say about a box set composed of remixes of ELP tracks?

I thought there could be at least one or two decent songs, but no, I was wrong, all are tedious, repetitive, boring and less than mediocre (Except maybe a cute version of I Believe in Father Christmas).

I heard the full album once because I was in a reunion and the owner of the house loved it (Of course he and his wife believed Trilogy and BSS sucked), after 20 minutes of torture I was tempted to escape by a window but his apartment was in a tenth floor, to make it worst it got mixed with my Cd's and tried some songs in my house but there was no improvement, so I took it back to him after one day.

But the real crime is that they are trying to sell us 7 different versions of Fanfare for the Common Man, each one worst than the previous, all butchered by different DJ's, I can't imagine how many copies they sold, because the people interested in remixes won't buy an ELP album and very few hardcore fans will pay for this because it's simply the opposite of what the band represents.

It's painful to see a once amazing band loosing the credibility they still have with this album, my honest recommendation is to avoid it by all means, if you see it in a store, go to another one, if not for you, do it for the band, they don't deserve to be remembered for this box set after so many great albums.

Sadly I can't give less than one star because IMHO this album should deserve a negative average.

Atrocious

This is a 3-CD techno dance collection that loosely uses some ELP riffs and sounds. It is called Re-Works, but really this takes re-working way, way too far. The songs are so far deconstructed from the originals that the originals really aren't even there any more. The last disc consists of 5 different mixes loosely based on Fanfare For The Common Man, which is actually an Aaron Copland piece which was covered by ELP. Essentially, it is just repeated use of the opening horn section with a techno background. Maybe my problem is trying to listen to this album in one sitting, but it is an absolutely horrible listening experience. If I were in a dance club being bombarded with what passes as dance music today, and then one of these songs came on I might be thrilled to hear strands of ELP within the techno music, but two plus hours straight of this is quite frankly just torture. Which makes me think that another good use for this album would be to blare it really loud outside of hostage and stand-off situations. That should bring any such crisis to an immediate end.

Needless to say this gets 1 star from me. This definitely will not appeal to ELP fans, and to be honest, I am really not sure if it would even appeal to techno fans.