My first impression of this stuff is a bit hostile. I’ve had too much of electronic howdy-doody games on the machinery, believe me – but as I read through the information about the CD I gave myself the time to sit through it, and maybe then I got a little friendlier towards it.

The first bars sound too electronically plastic, non-inventive, to me, but luckily, that changes, and my demanding taste gets a little licked later on, as more imaginative events take place.

Between 1992 and 1996 Applebaum composed a number of acoustic pieces for virtuoso ensembles, called "the Janus Cycle". The works on this CD – as the title indicates – constitutes remixes of these works. Applebaum sampled parts of "the Janus Cycle", and then went on to manipulation through juxtaposition, superimposition, time compression, time expansion, pitch shifting and reversal.

Applebaum also indicates that he has been inspired by hip-hop, techno and other sub-genres, which can be experienced in some of the rhythmic parameters of his remixes. The composer entirely uses his own earlier works in the process of shaping this CD. About this he says: “My close proximity to these materials suggests both musical narcissism and self-loathing. My past is treasured, adored, fetishized and canonized, but, as in any rape, it is scrutinized, mutilated, profaned and discarded. At the heart of auto-plundering are not just bricollage and frugality, but a kind of self-exploration”.

This is a CD for mangled minds to keep being mangled. It’s not for those seeking peace and rest, but rather on the level with caffeine freaks and filter cigarette smokers, heading for their first heart failure. At times this is fun music too… (not all contradictory to the will of the Surgeon General)