The general opinion on the Beatles recent Love album is that it's a pretty nifty piece of work. Very much a labour of love for producer George Martin and his technoboffin son Giles. A patchwork of outtakes and edits, it recasts the Beatles legacy as one of sonic adventurers in the 21st Century. In other words, it sounds fantastic. Sources have been buffed up into chrome soundscapes and all sorts of tricks and red herrings have been added to keep the most devoted Beatle Brain busy. It's a big favourite in the office here where a quick straw poll reveals that 3/4 of the features desk team own a copy. One of the younger whippersnappers is of the opinion that it's OK, but would have been much better had the tapes been given to one of the more cutting edge "mash-up" artists currently in the limelight. Danger Mouse, one of the crazy Gnarls Barkley guys, made his name by crafting Jay-Z acapella samples from the Black album to backing tracks from the Beatles White Album. The resulting Grey Album was a massive underground hit and put the internet on the map as a source of subversive music distribution. The arrival of the Beatles Hate could well set the same wheels in motion. It's the dark side of the Love album, taking samples from bootlegs and welding them to a much darker worldview. It lacks the gloss of the Martins' effort but makes up for it in many other ways.