rimal Scream's first full-length remix album was produced by legendary UK Dub pioneer Adrian Sherwood, within months of the original Vanishing Point tapes being completed. Sherwood definitely did not hold back, and along with the Mad Professor's take on Massive Attack's 'Protection', it lead to a new resurgence in dub flavors in the late 90's British dance scene.


'Revolutionary Ju-87' takes Vanishing Point's 'Star' to new extreme, Bobby Gillespie's vocals are enveloped in deep and echoed horns, and the song retains is joyous positive vibe. 'First Name Unknown' is more experimental, as Sherwood mixed a great number of dub-processed drums with phone-effects, panning grindy-bass sounds and a plethora of interesting synth sweeps - a track that would go down well on a giant Jamaican sound system with a suitable bass sub woofer. The songs later synth-breakdown will make your ears bleed, giving way to pounding bass rhythms before the drums break back in again.


Vanishing Point wasn't exactly Bobby Gillespie's album - his vocal contributions have become less and less regular on their albums over time - so it's quite interesting to see a remix album based purely on the instrumental tracks of its source material. Echo Dek definitely pulls it off, adding careful layers of deep bass, carefully constructed echos and powerful drum-crashes to the already dense sounds. On 'Vanishing Dub' however, Vanishing Point's original driving bass-line seems overwhelmed by its new accompaniment, and a portion of the groove of the song seems lost.


Sherwood has made an excellent effort at producing the album though; even the original movie samples seem to fit nicely into place layered up with echoes. It actually appears to be a slightly more cohesive album than the original - due to the common theme of the remix approach (and the original's eclecticness) and certainly doesn't out wear it's welcome at a tidy 7 tracks over 44 minutes.


For a period, Primal Scream seemed to have slipped under the radar since their earlier success with Screamadelica, but with their subsequent late 90's material they developed a suitably receptive following for their growing eclectic styles. Well worth the purchase at a budget price.