Album Review: Sunday 8PM Special Edition by Faithless

Whether enlivening the track with harder beats for the dance floor or reducing the superfluous noise of a track down to the starkest voices, the power of the remix is to transform. Starting from the base of Faithless' sophomore album Sunday 8 PM, the recently released Special Edition includes, in addition to the original, a companion Saturday 3 AM disk chock full of remixes. Sunday 8 PM occupied a unique point in Faithless's eclectic style from grand house music to funky pop, but was certainly much more of a success in Europe, where the British group resides, than Stateside. Only "Insomnia" from their first album Reverence has made much of an impact. Unfortunately, the Special Edition may end up facing the same fate, since Saturday 3 AM offers up only an uneven collection of remixes. From the German ber-DJ Paul Van Dyk's entrancing hi-octane remix of "Bring My Family Back" to the inane End of the Road mix of "Take the Long Way Home," the remixes show how high and how low a mix of a song can go. Sometimes those peaks and doldrums are even evident on a single song, such as the interminable Yes He Is remix of the huge hit "God is a DJ." Unless you are a hardcore Faithless fan, you should let the variety rest solely on the worthwhile shoulders of Faithless themselves and not on the uneven cast of artists on Saturday 3 AM. B- --JIMMY ZHA