At last, it's here-the remix album of the soundtrack of the sequel to Tron. OK, put like that it sounds pretty dire and desperate, but the original soundtrack was one of those things I knew in my heart I was going to love, and didn't even have to pretend to when it arrived. The Boys Noize remixes have been floating around for a while, as have others, but a Daft Punk album of any sort is always a joy to behold, and any DP release at all usually contains at least 5 tracks we've all heard before, simply because they are absolutely too cool to be held in wait of schedules and have escaped the studio via mp3's, downloads and white labels passed on to the usual suspects. Speaking of the Daft Club, its a bit of a surprise not to find DJ sneak, van Helden, DJ Falcon, the Sanchezes and all the rest on here, and even more of one to see Moby and Oakenfold in amongst the names displayed here. Photek's take on 'End Of Line' is my current favourite, but then so is his stuff in general, so that's not much of a surprise. I'm really enjoying his subtle, solid and saucy take on every style he cares to turn his hand to.
In actual fact, some of the songs feel like remixes of the Wendy Carlos soundtrack to the 1982 original, more so than Daft Punk's sequel soundtrack did last Autumn, in particular kaskade's remake of 'Rinzler' and Moby's 'Son Of Flynn', while others like the Japanese Popstars' 'Arena' rearrange just enough to ensure they'll reach the dancefloor without losing the flavour of Daft Punk's originals. Having long been a DP fanatic, my initial assessment of their first mainstream soundtrack was that it wasn't dancey enough, which was to be expected really, as they were scoring a movie and not a stimulant fuelled night on the tiles, which is what I'd come to love them for way back when. The Oakenfold and Crystal Method tracks sound pretty much like any other Paul Oakenfold or Crystal Method song I've ever heard, though the vocal samples and sheer awesomeness of the original 'The Grid' make The Crystal Method's version pretty hard to dislike. Similarly, Sander Kleinenberg's closing remix of 'Tron Legacy End Titles' conjures up images far beyond the source material; for anyone of my age echoes of the 'Airwolf', 'Street Hawk' and 'Miami Vice' themes, alongside the many Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Harold Faltermeyer film scores are pretty hard to ignore. For all that, the finished product is much more than a nostalgia led dirge festival. Pretty Lights' take on 'Solar Sailer' sounds as fresh and original as anything coming out anywhere at the moment, and the Teddybears take on 'Adagio for Tron' takes my least favourite moment of the source material and turns it into a song you could use literally anywhere in a dj set. Finally, the opening remix of 'Derezzed' deserves special mention for turning the frenetic energy of the original into a nice laidback groove that still retains the energy somewhere inside;straining, but not quite managing, to burst free( harder to achieve than you might think, btw).
All in all, 'Tron Legacy:reconfigured', sorry-' R3configur3d' is probably exactly what you fear most, a cynical attempt to get more money from the original soundtrack album that sold so well, but for that, it doesn't half have some good music on it.
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