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On several occasions last year, I was slighty thrown by the curious ambient intro to Madvillainy opener "Illest Villains". Before giving way to a Pink Panther-style bassline and some patently brilliant vocal sampling, the bubbling 10-second prelude to 2004's most accomplished hip-hop disc doesn't sound like hip-hop at all. The blippy pulse kind of sounds like static from some interplanetary radio station. It kind of sounds like Four Tet, who proves to be quite the unconventional rap producer on his tag team effort with that cagey masked marauder MF Doom.

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Originally slated to drop last summer soon after the release of Madvillainy, these remix EPs were delayed at first due to creative feeling-out and nitpicking. Both Doom and Madlib wanted to tweak a couple of the remixes and-- thanks to their famously-hectic schedules-- the wait inevitably snowballed. After a botched test pressing, the songs finally broke free recently, albeit only on iTunes (due to contractual fine-print, these mixes will only get a physical release in Europe on wax). Still, the downtime has its benefits: With more distance between the originals and the new mixes, it's easier to consider these tracks on their own, and they'll inevitably have you going back to the source with a refreshed, slightly skewed perspective.

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Four Tet mastermind Kieran Hebden may not be the most obvious choice to take on such classic material but, based on his six-song collection, he's an inspired pick. Although psych-scratching Stone Thrower Koushik would seem like a more suitable candidate on paper, it's Hebden's far-reaching reimaginings ("remix" doesn't quite do these painstaking tracks justice) that truly impress. Employing his trademark free-jazz-inspired, electro-acoustic patterns, the laptop guru amasses small armies of saxophone squawks and looping synths all marching to some of the hardest drums he's ever programmed. Ever the sonic neat-freak, Hebden somehow tames his cacophonies and makes everything bump like a batch of Interstellar Coltrane-approved boom-bap. - Pitchfork