Sarah McLachlan Remixed

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Anyone who has followed McLachlan's career at all knows that she's not just some sweet, delicate hothouse songbird, but really an open(and tough)-minded artist. So a techno context for her music isn't really that incongruous. In fact, she has been remixed a number of times in the past, has contributed tracks to several techno CDs, and this remix project was conducted with her full cooperation and approval.

However, this CD is not just for Sarah McLachlan fans. In fact, some of her more ardent devotees may be a little miffed that she's not always front and center in the mix. Still, that's cool for the rest of us, who may think that McLachlan has a great set of pipes but has perhaps been a wee bit overexposed, and/or is just a touch too ethereal and precious at times, at least in large, album-chunk doses.

Seven different DJs work their magic here on nine McLachlan originals, with the preponderance taken from her Fumbling Toward Ecstasy and Surfacing CDs. Average song length is around nine minutes, so participants (including William Orbit, Hybrid, DJ Tiesto, Dusted and BT) have plenty of time to stretch out and display their skills. Some of the DJs give McLachlan a fairly straight diva treatment, allowing her soaring voice to grab a substantial piece of the action ('Fear, 'Sweet Surrender'), while others of a more experimental bent take greater liberties with her vocals, fragmenting, looping and otherwise shaping the original versions ('Possession', 'Hold On'). However, the implicit drama of the songs is almost always captured, with beats and synth chords ebbing and flowing to McLachlan's vocal vibe. And although I haven't experienced any of this music in a club, it's clear that at least some of it would be dynamite on the dancefloor.

Not being an enormous McLachlin fan myself, I didn't really know what to expect when I put this disk in the player for the first time, but it not only stands on its own as fine slab of club trance, it has also given me a much greater appreciation for McLachlin as an artist. As a postscript, I should say that everyone for whom I've played this CD wants to know who it is, and where it's available - wife, daughters, colleagues at work, etc. That's usually a good sign.