Various artists, 'Verve Remixed Christmas'

The buzz: Since 2002, Verve Records has opened its storied vaults to producers, DJs and composers with an eye for reinvention. This time around, the storied label has handed over some of the winter holiday's greatest tunes from Count Basie, Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong and more to digital virtuosos like the Orb, Wax Tailor and Oh No. The result? One of the year's coolest Christmas compilations. 

The verdict: "Remixed Christmas" is fun with drums from front to back. Louis Armstrong's "'Zat You, Santa Claus?" is transformed into rollicking hip-hop swing in the hands of British electro-rockers the Heavy, while Ella Fitzgerald's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" becomes a rousing resolution straight from the 21st century. Meanwhile, the Orb strip Louis Armstrong's towering presence out of "What a Wonderful World" to create another dizzying ambient soundscape, and the underrated French turntablist Wax Tailor gives Nina Simone's "I Am Blessed" a hypnotic, percussive backbone. Throw in the spiraling hip-hop stomp of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" from Madlib's younger brother Oh No, and you've got refreshing holiday revisionism for the whole family. 

Did you know? Verve paved the way for the American bossa nova movement in the early '60s through its release of Stan Getz's collaborations with Charlie Byrd, Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto and composer Antonio Carlos Jobim.

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