Mighty Bop

One of the best known acts on France's Yellow Productions label, the Mighty Bop have been releasing and remixing records since the mid-'90s trip-hop explosion. Buried under the hype of acts like DJs Krush and Shadow, the Bop have consistently distinguished themselves with a sweet, rather than the sleazy, down-tempo sound. Their style comes down to a cooled-out combination of lush keyboards and deep beats. Their versatility is evident throughout Spin My Hits, which looks back to their early jazz-hop beginnings and up to the more developed sounds of their recent work. The first cut, "Ride Away," is smooth rip-off of "The Art of Moving Butts" by A Tribe Called Quest, with clever Moog bass lines reworked from Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon." The sampling techniques are much more artfully hidden on "Feeling Good," with its meeting of indigo vocals and jerked-out b-boy beats, as well as the roller-disco groove of "Moody's Mood." The disc is mostly instrumental except for a few cuts, most notably "Sea, Sex & Fleurs," which features the kitty-talk of Louise Vertigo, and "Freestyle Linguistique," which features the light, butter flow of MC EJM. Occasionally, the beats get kind of slow, like on "Baby Dream" and "Elements of Life," which lack the dance-ability of the rest of the disc, but all in all Spin My Hits provides a solid retrospective on the Bop's signature sound.