On Amazon mp3, the Pharcyde, "Sold My Soul: The Remix and Rarity Collection" 2-disc album is sold for $15.98. Not bad especially considering that the actual CDs cost $17.98 on Amazon's non-download site.

On emusic, where I pay $19.99/mo to get 75 downloads, I just bought that same CD for $6.40.

Some of the best $6.40 I've spent in a while.

I'm sure the DJs and utilizers of vinyl probably have a lot of these songs already, but since I'm neither of those two categories - I did not. Normally, I don't bother with remixes because the captive allure of the songs stem from the originals. Rarely do most remixes make it past a 10 second test. The remixes of Scenario - Tribe and LONS, You Never Knew - Hiero, and the Got 5 On It - Luniz and the bay rappers definitely stand on the high ground with their original counterparts.

This collection of b-sides is pretty on-point though. While, I'm sure that eventually listening to the same song three different ways will get tiresome if done too much, the fact is that each track stands on its own - even if the vocals are the same.

Remixes are strange fruits like avocados. They have an acquired taste. They're potentially confusing in their constitution. They also do great at times to amplify the flavor of the original but other times tear down the essence of the foundation. Yes, it's still an avocado metaphor. Or simile.

I still have to dig deeper into each track more, from a sometimes deep and sometimes ambient listening perspective, the beats don't ever take away from the original concept of the song and importantly do not pull the songs away from the Pharcyde themselves. Some remixes hi-jack a song from the original artist, but that's not the case here. With more listen, I may find one or two that distance the emcees from the material, but as of now I think these chosen amplifications do a wonderful job.

Most of the beats sound organic - truly musical and relate back to the Pharcyde's west coast chill. Bizarre Ride II had more boomin' beats at times than labcabin, but here, the takes on the tracks are legitimately jazzed up with the aura of instrumentation.

Sometimes with emusic, you can feel pressured into dling songs that you might not otherwise take a glance at. With the time limit, the potential to forget about your DLs for each month, and the low cost of the each DL, it's easy to reach for material. Sometimes exploration is great. Other times, you're left with hard drives on both your computers and ipods filled with music you probably would never give more than 2 revolutions. But, there are other times that sampling the 30-second clips could inspire a decision that you'll appreciate forever.

For $6.40, it's easy to appreciate a service like emusic and the exploratory nature of "independent" music. It's like the crate digging of vinyl junkies. It's like the box digging of used-cd bargain hunters. There's excitement in finding gems even when some "finds" turn out to be duds.

Sold My Soul? Hardly.

posted by breakfast boy@ 2:07 PM