As the title suggests, "Companion" is a sister act to heralded dance duo ULTRAMARINE'S acclaimed "Every Man And Woman Is A Star" album, which was rightly re-issued to widespread acclaim during 2002 by LTM.
But while this is predominantly a collection of remixes, that shouldn't lead you into thinking that "Companion" is a cheap cash cow, as it has strength enough to stand alone and only adds further credence to Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond's legacy.
At over an hour in running time, "Companion" contains remarkably little slack, with the majority of the re-inventions/ alternative versions adding fresh dimensions to the already colourful originals. Indeed, things like Ultramarine's own remix of "Weird Gear" (undertaken at William Orbit's studio) and the sultry "Saratoga" - still featuring that lovely snaky flute part - are sleek'n'spacy in their own right, while the alternate "Nova Scotia" (from a 1992 Rough Trade singles club 7") possibly betters the original blueprint.
Besides, most of the unreleased gear is revelatory.The dub version of the excellent "Geezer" (here reworked as "Old Geezer Dub") is subterranean and delicious, and works wonderfully well in conjunction with the Sweet Exorcist (actually Richard.H.Kirk of Cabaret Voltaire) remoulding of the same tune. Kirk adds a dash of the paranoia the Cabs excelled at and accentuates the dubby aspect without sacrificing the ethereal beauty of the original. Extremely neat.
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"Intro" and - yeah - "Outro", plus "The Downer", from the "Nightfall In Sweetleaf" EP (1992) are only really snippets, though they're intriguing, rhythmic ones at that, while "Panther" swings sonic somersaults all over the shop thanks to some nimble breakbeats, cut-ups and fresh samples from Coco Steel And Lovebomb: the latter actually Marc Waterman, who's previously produced Elastica and Peter Perrett.
Perhaps best of all, though, is the closing live take (from Glastonbury '93) of "Pansy", which is augmented nicely by live drums from Paul Johnston, keyboards from Simon Kay and flute from Caravan's Jimmy Hastings. It's a lithe, ethnically-infused rollercoaster ride that cocks a snook at fellow Global beat travellers Transglobal Underground, with Hastings making it clear that the Canterbury scenesters were anything but the boring old farts they were lumped in with.
For me. Ultramarine never quite scaled such astronomical heights again, but "Companion" makes it indisputably clear that most of what they laid down between 1990 - 1993 was rarely less than inspired. Well done LTM: for most of this gear not to have seen the light of day would have been criminal.
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