Tosca Album: “Souvenirs”

I had to write this review to give a different take on this disc. First, this disc isnt Tosca strictly speaking. It's remixes of Tosca done by other artist. Second, those artists are hardly 'hack DJs' as one of the other reviewers wrote. So if you buy this disc expecting a Tosca album then you will likely be disappointed.

That said, this is not the most compelling collection of remixes. Several quite good tracks, a few not so good, and the rest in the middle. Not the greatest but certainly not 1 star.

Having enjoyed much of Tosca's earlier works, I picked this up on faith. After listening to it, however, it's clear I made a big mistake. This is one of the worst albums I've heard in a long time. Tosca should be ashamed of themselves for attaching their name to a collection of dated, uncreative remixes by a bunch of hack DJs. As if to add insult to injury, their one "new" track on here is 9 seconds of silence. Unfortunately, I'm quite serious. It will hard for me to overlook this travesty of an album the next time a Tosca CD comes out.

I have been a big fan of Tosca as well as the Kruder and Dorfmeister team for years. The double CD set Sessions by K&D is the best downtempo collection ever, IMHO. I was very excited to learn recently that there was a Tosca CD (Souvenirs) about which I didn't know, so when I sat down to give it a serious listen with my headphones, I found myself extremely confused and disappointed. I did not understand this experiment. I found it to be so irritating that it broke my heart. I understand the need for artists to reach out and explore new directions, but not here. Not Tosca. I hope they go back to what they do best-- minimalist, deep, sexy grooves.

Highly enjoyable collection of remixes. They aren't world class, but don't deserve one star either. I enjoyed the way the mixes deconstructed the original tracks and added humorous samples as well. Well worth checking out for the Tosca completist.