Anyone familiar with anything from Eskimo or The Glimmers will know that a straight up mix CD is the last thing you should ever expect, with the compilations reflecting less the DJ mixes that surround them in the CD rack of your local megastore and more a trip into the rabbit whole of an obscure flea-pit jukebox. Kicking off with the absolutely-classic-and-virtually-universally-liked 'Loaded' by Primal Scream (one of the only tracks many a listener is likely to know) Volume V instantly shows it colours as a journey through percussion with the bongo-infected rhythm smoothly swallowed up by The Glimmers' own dub of Shirley Bassey's 'Slave To The Rhythm'. It is a testament to The Glimmers' production abilities that when Bassey's ballsy vocals kick in she never sounds anything other than effortlessly cool.
Harvey's take on LCD Soundsystem's awesomely good 'All My Friends' could easily be accused of throwing the baby out with the bath water, maintaining nothing discernible from the original yet still conjuring a nice laid back jazzy groove before the percussive 'Bullish', by Herb Alpert, kicks in. 'Bullish' itself gives way to Mac Attack's hip-house on 'The Art Of Drums'.
The beauty of a good Glimmers mix is always the variety at play and the curveballs - demonstrated here by the complete left turn into the heavily Asian influenced (whisper it) Bhangra Dissidenten's 'Fata Morgana'. It should be irritating, yet somehow it comes off as infectious.
Virtually every track adds something to the mix but clear highlights come in the form of Runaway's Wurst Edit of 'I Don't Mind' by Eugene Record and, interestingly, The Glimmers own 'Kiss Me'. 'I Don't Mind' is a slinky disco-house number that builds to a climatic finale as soft acid lines path the way for a very disco vocal whilst 'Kiss Me', The Glimmers' first truly convincing artist track, is a simple yet effective acidic groover which builds over the course of five minutes into something that Eddie Van Halen would make if you let him loose on a 303. Patrick Coutin's 'J'Aime Regarder Les Filles' also deserves a mention for it's timeless feel together with the fact that it simply oozes film-noire cool. As Coutin shouts out 'J'aime! J'aime!' it is difficult not to imagine this soundtracking either Tarantino's or Soderbergh's next pic.
Eskimo Volume V is yet another classic Glimmers mix, quite possibly their best yet. Seek it out.