The quite excellent fourth installment of Verve Records' acclaimed Verve Remixed series (which fuses yesteryear's jazz, soul, Latin and R&B icons with the modern zest of today's tastemakers) couldn't of dropped at a better time. Thanks to Mark Ronson, Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and a bevy of backwards-gazing UK soul-pop exports and crate-digging hip hop beatmeisters, appreciation for the wondrous sounds of our parents and grandparents' vinyl collections is at an all-time high. This latest edition hooks up legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Roy Ayers and James Brown with respected knob-twisters Diplo, 9th Wonder, Truth & Soul and many others for an endlessly entertaining blending of the old and the new.

Some of the re-imaginations pull out pleasant results from some minor tinkering: Truth & Soul apply a subtle beat foundation to Dinah Washington's "Cry Me A River"; Kenny Dope seems to simply extend the big band bravado of the JB sweat-inducer "There Was A Time"; and Pilooski plants a four-on-the-floor disco tornado under the chopped raunchy pleads of Nina Simone's "Take Care of Business".

But most of the compilation's highlights come from the more massive re-hauls: Psapp elevates the perky bounce of Astrud Gilberto's "Bim Bom" with a sliced-and-diced array of playful twinkles that play off the titular hook's child-like appeal; The Cinematic Orchestra remix of Ella Fitzgerald's pomp "I Get A Kick Out of You" pits the First Lady of Song's haunted vinyl-crackling vocal in the calming warmth of tender acoustic guitar layers; and Nina Simone's finger-snapping shuffle "Gimme Some" is given a sprightly Motown girl group makeover in the hands of Mike Mangini.

Miles better than most packages of the similar theme, Verve Remixed 4 provides an assortment of dazzling aural experiences that guarantees it a summer-mixtape must-have.



DL: Nina Simone "Gimme More (Mike Mangini Remix)" (YFH)



DL: Ella Fitzgerald "I Get A Kick Out of You (Cinematic Orchestra Remix)" (YFH)