Super Furry Animals - Phantom Phorce
[Placid Casual]

Remix compilation = wow! Famous names = even better! Sadly not, and whoever had the misfortune of compiling 'Phantom Phorce' deserves some serious credit. If there was ever a bland & uninspiring package to put you off remixes for life, you heard it right here.

A varied, radically reworked and completely surprising clutch of tracks is a mere romantic fantasy as far as 'Phantam Phorce' is concerned, with most artists creating amateurish, patchy electronica. Leading a darker & more lethargic route than their usual Summery antics, there's of little substance to retain any thrill factor or lastability.

Lacking most of all is any chart-friendly tracks, or their inventive use of guitars and technology. Considering who has been selected for restructuring their work, a considerable number of the mixes are highly unimaginative and obvious - no experimentation on a Super Furry Animals album really makes dull listening.

Only Boom Bip, Minotaur Shock & Force Unknown make the effort to create something alternative to the original versions, suggesting an EP would have been more fitting. Hastily collated and randomly pieced together, the album consistently proves difficult to get into & becomes almost as predictable as 'Rings Around The World'.

Kerching, did someone say ca$h-in?