The Crystal Method
Community Service II
(Ultra)
What begins with a kicking 1980s electro groove soon meanders across genres disappointingly. Las Vegas knob-twiddling duo The Crystal Method (aka Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland) present their own original productions here, alongside some dirty rock-heavy remixes of tracks by The Doors, New Order and Smashing Pumpkins.
As a remix album, both their own tracks and those of others are abstracted and blend club-like into one another. Thus, the listener has no inkling that Jim Morrison's lyrics are about to kick in on Roadhouse Blues Remix - an interpretation of The Doors' 1970 classic. Although resembling the original, it typifies the accessible rock-edged, big beat, trance hybrid of Crystal Method. It's a sound that reached right out of the LA club scene, where the duo are idolised, and earned a Grammy nomination for last year's Legion of Boom.
This can get monotonous, however, as on the plodding mixes of Dylan Rymes' Salty and Evil Nine's We Have the Energy, both of which contain predictable build-ups and breaks.