If I ever meet The Third Eye Foundation's Matt Elliott -- an admittedly unlikely prospect, given that he lives in the UK and I'm in the US -- I'm going to have a stern word with him about the importance of good album titles. Seriously, I Poo Poo On Your Juju? What the hell has Elliott been smoking? Were there no retarded children available to suggest a better name? I'm not normally inclined to make a big fuss about goofy album titles, but I'd have serious reservations about actually buying an album called I Poo Poo On Your Juju. Wouldn't you? I'll give Elliott this much credit; as the disc is a collection of hard-to-find Third Eye Foundation remix work, the title does make sense. But if, as is rumored, this is really the Third Eye Foundation's swan song, why give it a name not only compromises its marketability, but...well, is stupid?

However, just as girls named Bertha occasionally grow up to be thin, I Poo Poo On Your Juju rises above its name to deliver a wealth of worthwhile material. Many artists can't even remix their own material interestingly, so Elliott's ability to expand the scope of other artists' work is certainly impressive. He has a knack for making music...spooky. Listen to "La Dispute", by French minimalist pianist Yann Tiersen, and you'll see what I mean. This is actually a rather extreme instance -- Elliott actually arranged the piece, provided lyrics and additional production for the piece, which appeared on a compilation from French label ici, d'ailleurs -- but it is, without doubt, spooky and mournful as all get-out. Tarwater's "To Describe You" is compressed into an oblique fever dream, while Urchin's "Snuffed Candles" becomes a strange, Portishead-meets-Hellraiser hallucination, full of creepy turntable yelps and tolling church-bells.

After massaging Remote Viewer's "All of the WCKWC Want to Be Abstract" into a mild-mannered slab of mid tempo ambient glitching, Elliott challenges Chris Morris in the soulful, muffled drum 'n' bass drawl epic "Push Off My Wire". This is an impressively detailed mix, with many intriguing layers of detail sheltering beneath the clunky primary melody. Blonde Redhead's "Four Damaged Lemons" may be the most familiar (and readily available) track here; drawn from the largely unnecessary Melodie Citronique EP, its grim mixture of tocsin bell, gentle piano and French lyrics find a happier and more ethereal home on I Poo Poo... (And PC game fans will notice that portions of this track strongly resemble the soundtrack from the year's creepiest game, American McGee's Alice, handily upping the disturbance factor). "Mute", Faultline's drum 'n' bass workout, is whittled down to a sketchy framework, then reassembled in a compressed-and-enhanced configuration that de-emphasizes its percussion. Closing the album, Elliott's remix of Glanta's cover of the Modern Lovers' "When I Dance" is almost unrecognizable, an eerie dirge from a time-fractured music hall show.

I don't know if a lot of work went into sequencing I Poo Poo On Your Juju or if Elliott just threw the tracks together, but it actually sounds more cohesive than many single-artist albums. It is one of those rare remix albums that truly belongs on the shelf beside the artist's original works. If it is the last Third Eye Foundation release, Matt Elliott is going out on an unexpectedly high note. It's just a shame that he chose to ride into the sunset on a horse named I Poo Poo On Your Juju.