Review - '64-'95

Mashing up a Masters of Reality song into a dance track should be considered blasphemy, especially a song from MOR's excellent self-titled album. But the way Lemon Jelly slices and dices "The Blue Garden" into a fat ol' big-beat joy called "'88 (aka Come Down on Me)" simultaneously reminds you how great the original was and the limitless ways in which a song can be reconfigured and recontextualized. If the Hardkiss collective had ever gotten truly ridiculous with their sampling, they might have ended up sounding a lot like Lemon Jelly, a crew that enjoys crate-digging as much as they value making thoughtful, expansive electronica. All the tunes on '64-'95 are culled from a battery of samples, some credited and some not, but Lemon Jelly are not the Plunderphonic Spree. They just know that sometimes a loopy loop goes a long way in the difference between a track that's good and a track that's sublime.