The essence of the effort to integrate jazz and hip hop taken by DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid - aka Paul D. Miller - in his 2002 release Optometry (Thirsty Ear) was voiced in the track "Asphalt (Tome II)," where Carl Hancock Rux vocalized: "I got two turntables and Coltrane, and not just Blue Coltrane, and not just Monk, and not just Miles."

In this sequel disc of remixes, there are more turntables than signs of Coltrane or Miles. The sound sources of pianist Matthew Shipp, bassist William Parker, hornman Joe McPhee and drummer Guillermo E. Brown, all of whom backed DJ Spooky on Optometry, are thrown deep in the mix on most of the tracks. In a similar way, Negativland leave no vocal line from "Asphalt" recognizable.

Taking this album as a straight hip hop or dub disc has its own merits. The show-off intellectualism of DJ Spooky is gone, no more sophisticated titles and manifestos, and we are left with Lee "Scratch" Perry's wild call "I am a monkey" against Shipp's funky block chords on the track "Jungle Soldier", one of the best on Dubtometry. Perry is also present on the provocative, funky-dub version of "Parachutes". McPhee's muted trumpet is used beautifully on the effect-laden "Variation Cybernetique rmx" by Twilight Circus. The mix of sampled tabla with the distant flute in Blend's "Demented Absentia rmx" is also effective.

Some of the tracks would have better deleted from this disc. Colorform's "Sequentia Absentia rmx" is a primitive outdated techno mix. DJ Goo's two mixes of "That Subliminal Kid vs The Last Mohican" and "Bomb Massive (Optometry rmx)" offer no original insight into the 'Optometry' tracks. The silly United Nations reference in Alter-Echo's "Interlude" is already outdated.

'Optometry' was, and still is, one of the most interesting releases on Thirsty Ear's Blue Series. Here DJ Spooky does not aim to create a new musical language, just to have a good time. Or as J-Live asks in "Optometrix": "Is it Jazz? Is it hip hop?". Definitely hip hop. And a good dose of it.