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Les Plus: Best of Fantastic Plastic Machine

 
Album Review: Les Plus: Best of Fantastic Plastic Machine

Review

Half a standard best-of compilation and half a gathering of remixes, Les Plus: Best of Fantastic Plastic Machine falls between two stools. For one thing, Tomoyuki Tanaka's collaborative project has only four albums to its credit, which makes it simply too early for a best-of for an active group. Listening to tracks from the four albums, from 1998's Fantastic Plastic Machine through to 2001's Take Me to the Disco, in close proximity shows only how narrow Tanaka's musical world view of turntables, bossa nova rhythms, and nondescript female vocals is and how little growth and variety there is between the albums. Paradoxically, the remixes -- of some of Tanaka's best songs, like the dreamy "Bossa for Jackie" and the brilliant reworking of Eurythmics' "There Must Be an Angel (Playing With My Heart)" -- are actually the most disappointing part of the album, as they offer no interesting new twists on the material and merely sound like change for change's sake. There are some excellent songs on here, including "Bachelor Pad," Fantastic Plastic Machine's bubbly contribution to the soundtrack of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and an imaginative take on Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out," but as a whole, Les Plus: Best of Fantastic Plastic Machine is less than it could have been. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Take Me to the Disco [FPM Original Mix] Tomoyuki Tanaka Fantastic Plastic Machine (4:29)
There Must Be an Angel (Playing With My Heart) [Tanimoody Mix] Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart Fantastic Plastic Machine (5:12)
Hello and Goodbye Tomoyuki Tanaka Fantastic Plastic Machine (6:50)
Steppin' Out (Lyrics) Joe Jackson Fantastic Plastic Machine (5:32)
Honolulu, Calcutta [Sunahara Yoshinori Mix] Tomoyuki Tanaka Fantastic Plastic Machine (4:13)
Flying High Tomoyuki Tanaka Fantastic Plastic Machine (5:15)
Bossa for Jackie [Los Amigos Invisibles Mix] Simon Fisher Turner, Masaki Tsurugi Fantastic Plastic Machine (5:34)
Take Me to the Disco [Malibu Mix] Tomoyuki Tanaka Fantastic Plastic Machine (6:25)
You Must Learn All Night Long [Swamp Mix] Tomoyuki Tanaka Fantastic Plastic Machine (3:59)
Bachelor Pad [Version for the Spy Who Shagged Me] Tomoyuki Tanaka, Richard Cameron Fantastic Plastic Machine (3:20)
Please Stop! [Ra Ra Ra? 7 Inch Version] Yukihiro Fukutomi, Tomoyuki Tanaka Fantastic Plastic Machine (2:26)
Pura Saudade (Nova Bossa Nova) [Laxmikant Mix] Tomoyuki Tanaka, Takeo Sasada Fantastic Plastic Machine (6:34)
There Must Ban an Angel (Playing With My Heart) [Mix for Lay Down] Annie Lennox Fantastic Plastic Machine (6:00)
I Love FPM [Readymade JBL Mix] Tomoyuki Tanaka, Takeo Sasada, Masanori Ikeda Fantastic Plastic Machine (6:40)

Credits

Yoshinori Sunahara (Mixdown Engineer), Tomoyuki Tanaka (Producer), Tsutomu Oikawa (Mixdown Engineer), Hirose Osamu (Engineer), Tsutomu Oikawa (Engineer), Takeo Sasada (Programming), Los Amigos Invisibles (Remixing), Takeo Sasada (Arranger), Hirose Osamu (Mixdown Engineer), Yoshinori Sunahara (Engineer), Dennis Gunn (Vocals), Tomoyuki Tanaka (Compilation), Dougee Dimensional (Vocals), Ad de Feyter (Programming), Masayuki Kumahara (Arranger), Yukihiro Fukutomi (Bass (Electric)), Tomoyuki Tanaka (Arranger), Masaki Tsurugi (Arranger), Konishi Yasuharu (Remixing), Lorraine Bowen (Vocals), Masayuki Kumahara (Rhythm Arrangements), Yukihiro Fukutomi (Programming), Yoshiaki Onishi (Engineer), Richard Cameron (Arranger), Shoichi Kajino (Art Direction), Yoshinori Sunahara (Remixing), Yukihiro Fukutomi (Arranger), Takeshi Nakatsuka (Keyboards), Yasuo Matsumoto (Engineer), Lorraine Bowen (Vocals (Background)), Tomoyuki Tanaka (Sampling), Rude Bones (Remixing), Tomoyuki Tanaka (Turntables), Kikou Uehara (Engineer), Masahiro Kobayashi (Trumpet), Kikou Uehara (Mixdown Engineer), Masayuki Kumahara (Programming), Yukihiro Fukutomi (Engineer), Ad de Feyter (Engineer), Takeshi Nakatsuka (Arranger), Pete Hofmann (Engineer), Titi Matsumura (Guitar (Acoustic)), Wim Elzinga (Guitar (Steel)), The Maxwell Implosion (Remixing), Yasuo Matsumoto (Mixdown Engineer), Roger Joseph Manning Jr. (Producer), Masaki Tsurugi (Synthesizer), Yoshiaki Onishi (Mixdown Engineer)
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Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more