or to call the album by its proper tag : the beginners guide to bootlegs.

from the corny cover artwork, to the complete lack of a mention of go home productions on the cover, i should have realised that this opportunity to release a genre defining album was going to misfire by a long way.

the fact that when word came out a few months ago mark vidler was to release a proper emi sanctioned album i became rather keen to hear the final results.

after all, with emi signing up for this would they, like sanctuary records have done for their antidote records mixtape spin offs, open their vast archives and say “mark, help yourself me old mate, have some fun!”, allowing him to become a new dj shadow or even danger mouse (all the more ironic considering that danger mouse received all those emi sourced cease/desist orders over the use of beatles tracks for the ground breaking the grey album and yet quietly mark has released several wonderful beatles mashup via his website) or, would they in actual fact, dust down a few old dusty remixes (kylie vs new order), some internet hammered tracks that anyone with a mild interest in the bootleg culture are sick to death of, and generally shoehorn a rather shoddy album out onto the racks.

it pains me to report that this  album is anything but a classic, and actually falls into the second of the two options above.

the admission is all the more painful, considering that mark, under the go home productions guise, has blended together some inspired choices over the years, making visits to his website an essential part of everyday life.

of course there are some solid examples of the bootleg thing done well here, the ubiquitous rapture riders (the doors vs blondie track that has been released several times previously), and franz buffalo (malcolm mclaren vs franz ferdinand) but to be honest, the rest is pretty barrel scraping.

why can’t we have the excellent bowie vs bowie track that mark was allowed to release on vinyl only a few years ago, where fore art thou, ray of gob, (madonna vs sex pistols), the record that propelled mark into the limelight, or the mind melting brilliance of essex doves (doves vs david essex).

instead the albums mainstay is overplayed office party commercial dance tracks that just grate and do little for me. i mean i really hate that god-awful groovejet track, can’t stand the painful cliché that are the vocals from that bloody mousse t record, and iggy pops passenger riff is so overused that it has drifted into the i never want to hear that track again vicinity.

so unfortunately, this album doesn’t stretch the boundaries a la the grey album, nor does it induce smiles and get the party swinging a la 2 many djs, instead it’s a cheap-n-not-so-cheerful cashin album, and one that i genuinely hope mark recovers from, as i know he has the capability to release a far more interesting album than this.

oh well, i’m off to dig out the recent go home productions blue room mix from early 2007 that proves the bootleg genre still has some life in it, and eradicate this poor excuse for an album from my hard disk.