3 out of 5

Label: Rephlex

Produced by: Bogdan Racsynski

While exposure to more of Bogdan Raczynski’s drill and bass silliness is always a good thing, this compilation of some EP vinyl material into a more convenient CD format combines a lot of the artist’s more, hrm, exasperating tendencies into a non-stop package of those. Bogdan already being an acquired taste among IDM and breakbeat stuff – winding its way between oddball, goofy experimentalism and heart-attack drill beats, not to mention occasional forays into more naively emotive works like MyLoveILove – fans of his material will surely still find stuff to work with, especially the tracks from I Will Eat Your Children Too!, which appear towards the start and end of the release. These are closest to the “classic” Bogdan sound on Samurai and Boku, though less complex variants: broken up BPM clatter; occasional vocal snippets of random thoughts / stories; and catchy keyboard squiggles; that mash-up of childishness and aggression. The tracks don’t quite achieve the flow found on either of those two albums, especially when split up, but they help “frame” the other cuts from ’96 Drum n Bass Classixxx, which are even more stripped down, and true to that album’s humorous title: drums, bass. They’re club tracks, played with a smile. It’s to be noted that these are often edits of those tracks, keeping everything hovering around a 3- to 4-minute mark, which might be why the album ends up feeling a bit scattered overall. This is then reinforced by a sequence of “secret” tracks after the last one, which are all short snippets of various beats. Even though this is a compilation of pre-existing stuff, it has that same vibe: a set of beat experimentations.

It’s never uninteresting, given Bogdan’s penchant for breaking up a beat as often as possible, only to circle back around and double up its speed and intensity, and the work is undeniably his, but it probably worked better in its original formats: as a 4-track EP, and as a whole set dedicated to goofy club riffs.