Peter Thomas

Warp Back to Earth: 66/99 is a double-disc remix album of themes and cues by German soundtrack composer Peter Thomas. Best known to exotica fans for his TV scores, including the truly odd early electronica he devised for the space fantasy Space Patrol Orion, Thomas specialized in a sort of middle-of-the-road sound, neither as unique as that of Esquivel or Ennio Morricone nor as melodically satisfying as the best work of Henry Mancini or John Barry, but quite good regardless. Unfortunately, this remix project is limited in terms of what it could cover, as most of Thomas' multi-track masters are long since lost. Bungalow Records scraped together what they could find of Thomas' surviving masters (the 29 very brief tracks, some no more than fragments, are collected on disc two) and handed them off to what can only be termed the usual remix suspects: St. Etienne, Stereolab, Stereo Total, Momus, Schneider TM, John McIntire, and the High Llamas all take a whack. Frankly, the original fragments are so insubstantial and melodically uninvolving that the resulting remixes basically sound like new tracks by the artists, especially the High Llamas' moody "The Bells of Senegal," which would not sound at all out of place on Cold and Bouncy. Warp Back to Earth: 66/99 is not a bad record, but only those with a passionate interest in both late-'90s electronica and '60s soundtracks will find it of more than passing interest. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide