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Carl Douglas, "Kung-Fu Fighting"
A decade or so ago, I worked part-time in a CD shop that specialized mainly in strange and obscure imports. One of our favorite pastimes was scouring the catalogs from distributors in places like Germany and Japan to find the most unlikely reissues and greatest hits collections, and at one point, we had a list posted in the stock room of the "Top 10 Greatest Hits albums that should be a CD single." Number one with a bullet was a German anthology of tracks by Carl Douglas, the Jamaican-born singer behind the 70s pop-disco classic "Kung-Fu Fighting" and, well, a lot of other songs that no-one cared about.
Released in the UK in 1974 at the height of the craze for chop-socky kung-fu flicks, the song spent weeks on the charts, and had similar success in North America the following year. 30 years later, the folks at German neo-dub label Echo Beach decided that it would be a good idea to have a bunch of people remix this slice of 70s cheese, and given the current popularity for reconstructed & deconstructed kung-fu films like Kill Bill and Hero, the release has a perverse sense of the "expert timing" mentioned in the lyrics. The big question, though, is whether or not the world really needs 16 new versions of what is essentially a novelty record by a long gone one-hit wonder. After forcing myself to listen to the entire 78 minutes of 30 seconds of the album, I'd have to say that the answer is a powerful and resounding NO. It doesn't start off too badly, as the opening mix by Noiseshaper turns the track into a surprisingly enjoyable chilled-out reggae number. But as the album moves on through one dub-based variation after another by Dreadzone, Kid Loco & Rob Smith, it doesn't take long for the novelty of the project to wear off. Seeing Adrian Sherwood listed in the credits offered some promise, given his reputation as an adventurous producer who often pushes the limits of dub techniques, but his mix is sadly one of the weakest in a generally weak bunch. The only bits that stand out are the Pole mix, which drops a handful of vocal samples into a downtempo composition that is one of his best works in quite some time; and G-Rizo's version which completely reworks the track into a mellow broken beat number with breathy female vocals. If this had been a 4-track EP, it would've been a fun release worth grabbing to add some humour to the dance floor at your next house party, but as an album, it's really quite excruciating. Given that this isn't the first time Echo Beach has done this sort of thing— they released a similar album a couple of years ago featuring a multitude of mixes of their namesake song by Martha & The Muffins—I can only shudder to think what mouldy oldie will be next in line for this treatment. 
