 Saint Etienne Certainly one of the more disposable Saint Etienne CD singles, but the completist in me had to snap this up when I saw it used for $4.99. Unfortunately it has a scrape in the disc that results in a couple of very tiny skips, but it being a remix CD, I barely even notice. And that doesn't mean your copy will be scratched, does it? So really, it wasn't even worth mentioning. Um, well, on to the review. Four tracks, beginning with the single edit of "Like a Motorway" (from Tiger Bay), followed by a moody urban remix by the Dust Brothers (clocking in at over nine minutes), a deep, deep house mix by David Holmes (almost thirteen minutes) and a spacey ambient noise mix by Autechre (about eight and a half minutes). Thirty-four minutes in all, like a trip into an ever-darkening tunnel with the radio fading out more with every ten feet until you're enveloped in a sheet of sound you don't so much hear as experience directly in your eyes and neck. (?) The mixes are all good, though a bit arbitrary, typically not representing the original song in any noticeable way, but rather using it as a springboard for a totally new journey. The whole thing holds together well, though, and as one of Saint Etienne's best singles, "Like a Motorway" is always worth hearing no matter what form it's in. All that said, it's definitely something for the fans, as most people wouldn't care one way or the other about a disc like this. In other words, if you're reading this at all, chances are you'd like this EP, and if not, well, then, I'm just a tree falling in the woods, am'n't I?
Review by Huffy Hammersmith-Odeon |