Meat Beat Manifesto: Storm The Studio : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Electro-dance icons Meat Beat Manifesto have always been slightly ahead of their time, but with this remix disc, they sound even more futuristic than usual. A reworking of tunes from their 1989 debut, Storm The Studio (which was reissued this past July), this takes the originals to the lands of dub (Ryan Moore), ambient techno (Spacetime Continuum), and, uh, wherever the hell DJ Spooky comes from. While the original tunes were minimalistic in their crossing of electronica and hip-hop, here they're cut up, looped, and piled with thick layers of metallic noise ("STS 2006 [Antipop Consortium Mix]" by Antipop Consortium), atmospheric textures ("MBM Reanimator [Scanner Mix]" by Scanner), and futuristic computer bleepery ("God O.D. [Eight Frozen Modules Mix]" by Dub-loner). But while even diehard Meatheads will have trouble identifying the originals, enjoying them is easy for anyone into cyberpunk-ish dance music.

PAUL SEMEL
(September 23, 2003)