Nip/Tuck  (Audio CD) 
by Gabriel & Dresden

Is there a more perfect musical metaphor for Nip/Tuck's themes of deeper-than-skin neuroses and narcissistic surgical reinvention than the chic chimera of a club remix? Josh Gabriel and Dave Dresden, the dub savants behind contemporary club successes that include Andain's "Beautiful Things", Motorcycle's "As the Rush Comes" and Sarah McLachlan's "Fallen," conjur up a nigh-seamless soundscape of haunting textures and percolating beats here, forcefully pushing the envelope of what a smart song-score can be in the bargain. Their rhythmic reinvention of The Engine Room's theme for the show, "A Perfect Lie," sets the cynical, haunting tone, with Gabriel and Dresden employing a sensibility that's both more mature and austere than their typical club work. G&D infuse that consistently entrancing sensibility to material as diverse as the cool-jazz of "Angels" by Wax Poetic/Norah Jones, Daniel Ash's stripped-down reinvention of the standard "Fever" and the retro-disco of Client's "Price of Love." If it's a triumph of style over substance, it's one that musically underscores the show's similar themes with grace and ever-detached elegance. --Jerry McCulley