Make what you will of the mashup craze that's been going around for the last several years, I love it. I can't get enough of those wacky franken-songs: Beck vs. The Prodigy, Justin Timberlake vs. 50 Cent, Blink 182 vs. Yaz. That said, most of these digitally manipulated mashes are like a good joke -- you heartily enjoy hearing it the first time, you like telling your friends about it, but you don't really want to hear it every day. Enter the Dewaele brothers from Belgium with their amazing album of old-school mixes. You've got 44 different songs, all masterfully blended into something completely unique -- a 45-track rollercoaster that starts off mixing Emerson, Lake & Palmer with Basement Jaxx and the Beastie Boys. Along the way, there are certified crowd-pleasers like Salt 'N' Pepa crossed with The Stooges and The Breeders mixed with Skeelo. It's got popular songs, old classics, and obscure finds, all balanced nicely. But don't bother downloading this album piece-meal, it's definitely crucial to hear the entire disc, since each track flows seemlessly into the next. Finally, after you've listened to this sucker a few hundred times, go to the brothers' website and check out the track-by-track notes from both the DJs and the record-company clerks that had to get clearances approved.

Harold Check