Pete Tong has worn his status as a punchline with good humour (“it’s all gone Pete Tong!” says your least funny friend, regularly), while continuing to crank out easy Ibiza beats — in recent years, reworked with the help of the Heritage Orchestra.
Chilled Classics is his third collaboration with the group, arranged and conducted by Jules Buckley, transforming pulsing club anthems into orchestral numbers. On this 18-track album, there are a few brand new tracks, including the disco-inspired Go Crazy, featuring Todd Edwards.
Bear with — though that’s a strange billing, the mixture is curiously engaging. Every song sounds like it could be in a car advert, (mostly) in a good way.
A few tracks suffer — like Every Heartbeat, which becomes cloying and humdrum and not a patch on Robyn’s version — others, like Rose Rouge, set to sultry sax trills and a lively flute solo, become infinitely more beguiling.
