Chicks on Speed is the sound of two decades" worth of post-punk, no wave, and underground dance music thrown into a shredder and reassembled at will. In this sense, The Re-Releases of the Un-Releases is a perfect summation of these three Munich-based art students" work to date. It"s basically a remix of their first proper album, Chicks on Speed Will Save Us All, augmented with 7" tracks, live material, remixes, tossed-off ideas, overheard conversations, giggles, interview snippets, and studio chatter. There are no fewer than 33 tracks here, some only a few seconds long. At first it"s a bit too overwhelming and jarring--it doesn"t help that they"ve chosen to print the liner notes inside the cardboard sleeve, where they"re almost impossible to read without taking the cover apart. Soon enough, though, actual songs force themselves through the din. "Glamour Girl" features a Euro-disco bed and eerie, processed vocals. The call-and-response screams on "Procrastinator" conjure an imaginary rumble between Bush Tetras and Teenage Jesus & the Jerks. "Yes, I Do," my personal favorite, is propelled by funky electronics and witty art-school rhymes ("Sometimes/ They think I"m vermin/ Got more faces than/ Cindy Sherman"). Once your favorites emerge from this miasma--and I assure you, they will--the other tracks act as running commentary, letting you in on the Chicks" brainstorming and humor while practically daring the whole project to collapse on itself. The numerous cover songs seem part of this process as well, paying homage to influences while ripping them to shreds. Delta 5"s "Mind Your Own Business" gets two skewed takes, and Cracker"s "Eurotrash Girl" is the unlikely recipient of a Kraftwerk makeover. There are two B-52s covers: "Song for a Future Generation" is updated to include Mac Powerbooks and Internet friends, and "Give Me Back My Man" features choppy vocals and keyboards that continually cut in and out. If you"ve recently fallen for the LiLiPut compilation, if you"ve ever wondered what the Raincoats would sound like produced by Alec Empire and Thurston Moore, if there"s a distinct lack of gleeful experimentation in your music, then you need to hear this. --Mike Appelstein