Son of a professional musician who played in a flamenco band, the early education of producer and DJ Alex Gimeno (aka Ursula 1000) was dominated by the music of the dance floor. No surprise then that his debut album, The Now Sound Of Ursula 1000 made Pulse magazine’s Top 10 dance albums of 1999. This got him into the world of the jet setting international DJ and he gained a worldwide fanbase for his selections of breaks, bossa nova, electro, Latin and big beat. His third album Here Comes Tomorrow was an even more expansive meld of influences which helped him call up some mates to help out like the Latin rockers from Venezuela, Los Amigos Invisibles and former Coconut, Cristina of ZE Records. Two years later, Undressed …Remixed is a further exploration to see how far some top name remixers can take the spirit of Here Comes Tomorrow.

The CD starts with Brighton’s finest with a raggaesque beat via DnB & breaks experts Deekline and Ed Solo (who recently brought out a cover of the jazz-funk classic, ‘Always There’) and ends with the brilliant reggae of JStar with versions of ‘Step Back’.

In between this sandwich, we get some musical cheese, a bit of spicy pickle and a big phat mouthful. As the label Eighteenth Street Lounge Music is run by Washington DC based Thievery Corporation, you’ll expect local big boys Fort Knox Five to get a call up to do their space-funk R&B thing on ‘Electrik Boogie’ and staying in that mood, ‘Kaboom’ gets blown up by the cheeky All Good Funk Alliance.

Skeewiff are another name out of Brighton who have already been associated with Washington funkers with the compilation, The Raid : A Trip Into The Vault Of Fort Knox Recordings And Jalapeno Records and their version of ‘Boop’ is good time drum-break lounge jazz.

Electro house heads don’t miss out as Product01 get deep with their ‘Electrik Boogie’ but the tracks that might get the popular vote are the two versions of ‘Urgent/Anxious’ by Myagi and Ladytron (I wonder if they were ever ask to remix Roxy Music’s ‘Ladytron’?). The Ladytron mix is very much in the recent Goldfrapp version of Bolan 30 plus years ago.

Talkin’ of the 70s glam rock era, ‘Hello, Let’s To Disco’ is another track that gets the twice over. First up is Berlin’s undercover artist Robosonic who get it bangin’ club stylee and then another couple of Germans, Moston & Malente (who contributed ‘In The Sky’ to Ursula 1000’s Ursadelica compilation), stay closer to the original version.

It’s often said that Nicola Conte (who’ll shortly be compiling an album for Far Out Recordings!) is “similar” to Ursula 1000 but this is only so much in their mutal love of 1960s Brazilian bossa and jazz samba. If Nicola is serious jazz, Ursula 1000 is fun. Leave your worries behind and have a great time.

Reviewed: Ursula 1000 — Undressed …Remixed (Eighteenth Street Lounge Music) Cat. No. ELS 123 Release date: February 2008
Tracklisting:
1 Step Back (Deekline & Ed Solo Remix) (4:11)
2 Boop (Skeewiff Remix) (5:12)
3 Electrik Boogie (Fort Knox Five Remix) (6:38)
4 Hello! Let’s Go To A Disco (Robosonic Remix) (7:19)
5 Kaboom (All Good Funk Alliance Remix) (5:23)
6 Urgent / Anxious (Myagi Remix) (7:44)
7 Electrik Boogie (Product.01 Remix) (6:00)
8 Hello! Let’s Go To A Disco (Moston & Malente Remix) (5:18)
9 Urgent/Anxious (Ladytron Remix) (3:56)
10 Step Back (JStar Remix) (4:17)

Links:
www.ursula1000.com
www.myspace.com/ursula1000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursula_1000
www.eslmusic.com
www.myspace.com/eslmusic
www.myspace.com/ed_solo
www.myspace.com/djdeekline
www.skeewiff.com
www.myspace.com/losamigosinvisibles
www.product01.co.uk
www.myspace.com/ladytron
www.ladytron.com
www.myspace.com/ladytron
www.myagimusic.com
www.myspace.com/myagisoleclaw
www.funkweapons.com
www.robosonic.cc
www.myspace.com/robosonic