Melanie De Biasio + Various Artists:

Melanie De Biasio’s No Deal album was something lovely – and special. And so in that truly bogus way, and showing that Gilles Peterson is stuck in his ways, presenting some future-chic remix chicanery that now sounds (ironically) so dull-edged and dated – we have a remix album; it kills the vibe of the first album, ignores the template, scribbles across lines and colours far too much, too often, without adding anything.

Oh sure, there’s an almost-lovely Clap! Clap! remix, at least it hints at it in the opening moments, but then the slinkiness is dialled-up extra-heavy and this becomes yet another could-be/should-be mid/late-90s feel. It’s as if Moloko and St. Germain never died the deaths they so deserved.

Chassol’s rework of Sweet Darling Pain is tolerable. The Cinematic Orchestra’s take on I’m Gonna Leave You does their wonderful, shimmery-cymbal thing. But this album is so instantly not about De Biasio. And not about the songs. It mistakes the magic of the original album and therefore misrepresents it – all but transmogrifying the songs here actually.

Shuffling between a disgrace and the sort of music you ignore while waiting for your takeaway coffee (and 10-15 years ago at that) this will only appeal to Gilles Peterson’s fans. And I’ve never seen the appeal of what he offers as remixer, as compilation-maker. Here he shows almost no taste, blanding everything down to a scientific-sounding experiment in adding extra frosting.