By now it’s common knowledge that Stones Throw is the label to beat when it comes to hip-hop. It’s more fun to watch them try their hand at other genres and still nail it. The Baron Zen remix collection is as far away from Percee P and M.E.D. as it gets, but it’s an irresistibly fun listen. James Pants takes “Gotta Get Ridda Rick” and comes back with something from the DFA Records cutting room floor. It’s LCD Soundsystem on a slight bender. Peanut Butter Wolf’s remix of “At The Mall” revisits Bauhaus, pretending that Peter Murphy is 15 years old and buys goth duds from Hot Topic. The vocoder-drenched cover of The Gap Band’s “Burn Rubber” is a nice surprise; the Dam Funk remix turns the song into a tricky balance of suggested innocence and eventual sleaze. Meanwhile, Baron’s cover of “Walking On Sunshine” is blistering punk and silly kitsch at the same time. If you don’t laugh at least once while this album is playing, perhaps you’re taking it all entirely too seriously.
