After looking at the tracklisting I was a bit disappointed. This is not a new In The Nursery (ITN) album but rather a tribute to them. There are twelve different acts featured on this disc with an interpretation of a ITN song. The band themselves is only featured with one song. All bands pay homage to ITN as their inspirers (Cause) and display what they have done with their heritage (Effect). In the same vein ITN play their version of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart.
The nice thing about this disc is that there are all sort of different acts featured on it. It had been logical (and predictable) to let only bands in the gothic and industrial genres do remixes. While it is in these fields of music ITN have had the greatest impact. There are of course a couple of gothic acts doing a remix but there are also some electronic music artists featured.
Some artists stay pretty close to the original, orchestrated, bombastic and often militaristic, sound of ITN while others (mainly the non gothic artist) leave out these theatrical elements. The best remix is that of the cybergothic/electro act Flesh Field doing A Rebours. Their own sound is very orchestrated and bombastic so they have no problem rewriting ITN for a new generation of goths. Their version is a dancefloor smasher. Another nice interpretation is Angelorum by gothic band Faith & The Muse who keep close to the atmospheric side of ITN. Besides that there is a excellent remix of Corruption by 80’s wave band And Also The Trees. They seem to reinvent their own sound by going electronic and leaving the guitars out. Other artists that contribute good interpretations are Chandeen, Electronium, A_Robot and Attrition.
This album features a nice selection of different styles without sounding incoherent. It is too bad that mainly the more recent songs of ITN are being remixed. There is only one 80’s song on this collection the other songs are from 1990 and later.