How else can a band cash in on what was supposed to be their final album? Remember, the story went that after the sixth joker card fell.......well nobody fuckin' knew what was going to happen, so they needed to milk that shit, let's be fair. The Wraith itself was split into two separate albums and released two years apart, and then this remix album came trailing behind a few years later. It is no secret that anything post-joker card ICP is fucking abysmal, so this is the most recent ICP release in my possession.
If it was just any ol' remix album I wouldn't have bothered, but when ICP used a whole world of different producers on the two Wraith albums, it just didn't sit well with me. I think they are excellent albums; comedic "horrorcore" rap at it's best, but from what I had read and found out, Mike E. Clark - who produced pretty much every single ICP release before The Wraith - was basically the backbone of the sound that made ICP famous; that sick carnival vibe mixed with the old-skool stylings of the early 90s. On The Wraith; Remixes, Mr. Clark has returned to the chair for seven of the tracks, basically re-arranging them into the wickedness they would have been if he was at the helm from the start! This also confirmed to me that there was no bad blood between ICP and Mike Clark, which was great news.
Mike Clark's remixes are generally of a rather high quality, as are those by the Kottonmouth Kings and Monoxide from Twiztid. Kuma's mixes here seem a bit forced, like he is trying to make the tracks into completely different songs. Unfortunately, Fritz the Cat, the guy who gave us the heavy and dark production on Hell's Pit, just churns out more of the same; stripping back his own tracks and lashing on more evil vibes. I get it though, it works for him. Mind you, it's cool to hear his take on some of the Shangri-La tracks. Also, Wolf Pac & FILTHEE Immigrants both contribute seriously awesome mixes to disc one, but my favourite of the lot is Tech N9ne's reworking of "The Witch".
All in all this is definitely a completists item, or unless you're some sort of DJ or hip hop head who loves the remix shits. What is really refreshing here is that in some of the songs alternate verses are used instead; sometimes they are ones that were recorded at the time of the original record and then cut out, or a few times fresh new lyrics are worked in by the producer or a guest rapper of their choice. All the usual Psychopathic artists show up vocally here, like Blaze, Jumpsteady, Zug Island and ABK. Unsurprisingly, this double album was released by Psychopathic Records in America, and by Cortex in Australia.
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