For the first time ever world renowned mixologists have been given the keys to the Motown vault and the opportunity to remix some of the legendary labels greatest hits. All the usual suspects appear The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder and The Supremes but is this compilation Motown remixed or played out karaoke?

First for all the musical kindergarteners I’m going to offer some quick remedial musicology. Motown was the sound of the 60’s. The label was started in January 1960 by writer-producer Berry Gordy in Detroit, Michigan. Its first official headquarters, a house on 2648 West Grand Boulevard, doubled as both office and studio. The basement was transformed into a studio where, in the labels formative years, the likes of The Temptations and The Supremes recorded classics such as ‘Ain’t Too Proud To Beg’ and ‘Stop In The Name of Love’. If you don’t know these songs be ashamed and get to a record shop or a website which distributes music NOW!

Motown’s marketability was based on the fact that Gordy, with the help of writers like the legendary Smokey Robinson and the team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, had the ability to take the roots and soul of black music - gospel, soul and rn’b, and make it pop thus making Motown the essence of 1960’s pop music. Alongside others such as Phil Spector and The Beach Boys, Motown advocated a formula of slick production and timeless writing which has immortalised both the performers and the era. But this was not simply a musical venture, Gordy’s system of mass production, mass marketing (based on the studio system of old Hollywood) left a business legacy in black music. Motown is the grandfather/mother of the Bad Boy’s and Roc-a-fellas’ self-owned black music labels which utilise a marketable image and sound in an attempt to define an era.

Although Motown is now much lauded there have been many criticisms of the owner, label and the music. Many feel that Berry’s formula popularised a sterilized marketable type of black music, largely ignorant of the political and social problems faced by black people in 1960’s America. The other major controversy is the whole Supremes/Diana Ross affair. Too complicated to fully discuss here, basically Gordy’s had a long term affair with Diana Ross which had several repercussions within the Motown stable. The attention he paid Ross and the focus he put on making her a solo star allegedly led indirectly to the sacking of one third of the original Supremes, Florence Ballard and caused artists such as Gladys Knight, who felt sidelined by Gordy’s concentration on Ross, to leave the label. True or untrue, the quality and volume of the musical output cannot be denied.

Having had the history lesson let me turn my attention to the CD. I must admit my subjectivity in this review I have a problem with this whole concept. Just looking at the title of this album, is a problem as far as I’m concerned it’s just messing with perfection, musical sacrilege. I mean how and why would you take something which so quintessentially perfect like ‘Let’s Get It On’ and try to do anything to improve it?

That being said there are some alright tracks included on this album which undoubtedly comes into its own with the inclusion of tracks which are not associated with the mainstream Motown sound. The Futureshock (a.k.a. Hank Shocklee) Main Ingredient Mix of Undisputed Truth’s 1971 track ‘Smiling Faces’ and the Mocean Worker Mix of Rare Earth ‘I Just Want To Celebrate’ used in the 1999 film Three Kings, both manage to bring light an unknown side of the Motown sound. But, without question, the remix which stands head and shoulders above the rest, is Kenny Dope’s new spin on ‘Neither One of Us’ by Gladys Knight and The Pips, and that’s because he maintains the soulful essence of the original. Unlike Da Producers MPG Groove remix of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic ‘Let’s Get it On’. This should never have be touched and nor should it be touched again unless Merlin himself rises from the dead reincarnated as a DJ/Producer.

This is the kind of album you put on to get ready to before a night out or when you have people over for a drink, its not really a party album or remixed enough to be a dance or house classic. The overall style of the remixers used on this compilation really changes the mood of all the tracks sufficiently enough that any fool who can’t listen to originals may be able to take this (oh the blasphemy!). Another plus is that it is a consistent compilation, something you don’t often get. None of the remixers stray off the jazzy, conscious hip hop feel and so the album runs rather smoothly, you can just put it in and press play.

The obvious aim of this CD is to introduce a new generation of people to the Motown sound and these remixes put a jazzy-hip-hop feel on some of the labels biggest and most recognisable hits. However, in an era while the quality of the original recordings is reiterated constantly as so many people sample them (e.g. Angie Stone sampled ‘Neither One of Us’ on her 1999 track ‘No More Rain’) is it a worthwhile exercise to remix them? Well no. But, there are some okay remixes and some credible mixologists featured on this compilation worth a listen for the sake of musical preservation, even if you don’t buy it.

Release Date: 6th June
Record Label: Universal/Motown

Words By Rachel Webb