What I am about to part is Classified information, info on Bond's third studio album that is. The foursome have not departed from their tried and true formula of strings and pop syrup of oontsa-oontsa techno beats and drum machines. Granted, there are some triple digit BPM numbers, but when it comes down it, this has been ground already covered in full on Born and Shine, their first two albums, and much better.

The allegro, rhythmic and symphonic cadence of the action movie-theme of "Explosive" opens the album, showing a strong opening track that later closes the album.

However, the upbeat and Latin-flavoured "Samba," replete with whistles and vocals from the ladies, a first for them, veers more to conventional pop-techno, the strings being more or less classical window-dressing. They also cover the Silver Convention's classic disco standard "Fly Robin Fly," and violinist Eos Chater and cellist Gay-Yee Westerhoff do some singing there, but why bother doing a retread scarcely distinguishable from the original?

If the slow, dreamy rhythm of "Midnight Garden" is familiar, it's because Bond is using the melody from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, the Danse de Cygnes segment. However, in looking at the writing credits, I see to my horror that Piotr Ilyich is NOT credited whatsoever, which is also the case for his "Waltz Of The Flowers" from the Nutcracker in "Dream Star." Oh, but there's more. Their upbeat and skirt-swishingly danceable "Hungarian" is taken from Johannes Brahms' gypsy-like Hungarian Dance No. 5 given the drum machine backbeat, and "Senorita," which incorporates the slow, measured ballet-like "Habanera" melody from Bizet's Carmen. A selection from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite serves as the inspiring melody for "Dream Star." And the dreamy and pleasant "Lullaby" is a reworking of Pachelbel's Canon in D, uncredited again! Now that rap artists are required to give credit to music and lyric samples, one would think Bond would know better, given that classical crossover acts such as Sarah Brightman, Charlotte Church, Hayley Westenra, and Myleene Klass have done so. And Bond did too on their first two albums. What happened here?

Their foray into Middle Eastern sounds first explored in Shine continues in "Scorchio" which has some vivacious symphonic strings of a Liszt or Brahms sound, and the soaring "I'll Fly Away" written by cellist Westerhoff.

At least they gave credit where credit was required in "Adagio For Strings," which sprinkles random techno noises on Samuel Barber's funereal piece that in its pure form might lead one to start turning on the gas oven if one isn't of hale heart and mind. "Highly Strung" incorporates Aram Khachaturian's "Saber Dance," itself a dizzying whirling dervish of adrenaline, with some Duane Eddy-sounding surf guitar.

I don't mind the reworking of classical tunes with techno and electronic drum fills. My main issues with this involves proper credit, which if not given, becomes plagiarism-simply signifying "Copyright Control" in the credits, just does not do-and a sound, which is vivacious, soaring, and infectious, that nevertheless doesn't show much evolution from their first two albums. The only thing that shows evolution is their transition to FHM or Maxim models with a sickly magazine gloss on the album cover and inner sleeve, as if someone sprayed something on the ladies, which sadly detracts from the fact that they are talented string players. Summer dresses and bikinis, fair enough, but lose that model gloss! Something more innovative next album, okay?

I'll get this bit out of the way first: If you just heard about Bond from a friend or you stumbled across them, look at their first album 'Born'.

I'll admit, when I first listened to 'Born', I didn't dig the classical sound too much. The intros are slow-paced like real classical music, and the first really good song is on Track 5. But having listened to 'Shine' and now this album, I have to say I liked their original sound much better.

There's so much processing applied to these tracks that the ladies have taken a backseat to a SYNTHESIZER BEATBOX. It's obscene, and totally incorrect to boot, for the real musicians to get tossed in the background while some skinny, pasty recording engineer gets to pile layer after layer of samples and synth and...whatever else they use, ultimately smothering both the ladies' skill and the classical songs they're playing.

Don't buy this CD. Maybe you could go to their website www.bond-music.com and tell them to get their priorities in line.

As other reviewers have noted, Bond's latest, "Classified" is disappointing in many ways. To me, it is an unfortunate continuation of the decline that started with the James Bond Theme cut on "Shine", and gathered speed on the "Remixed" album. While I have found that I disliked a cut or two an various albums I've purchased, and made a selected edit CD containing only the tracks I enjoyed, when I listened through "Classified", I found only two tracks that I'd care to listen to on a regular basis - "Scorchio" and the second mix of "Explosive"... not enough to make a listenable CD! As others have noted, the tracks on this CD are severely over-produced - there are some tracks where it is hard to discern when Bond is actually contributing! If you want to hear modern interpretations of music by a fantastic rock string quartet, this CD is a waste of your time and money. Loose the drum machine, the vocal "noise", the non-melodic looping, the pounding guitar, and bring Bond to the forefront, and maybe the next album will be worth buying. Check out the producers and mixers on the tracks versus the early Bond...

I dont want to get myself pegged as one of the classical music elitists (nay, purists) who the band is typically getting snubbed by, but from one who has extensive classical training, and an appreciation for the diversions that appropriate themselves from it (Rasputina is by far, my favourite band, as they take classical training and create beautiful, intense and well-composed original works), I really dislike Bond. I was given this CD by a friend who with all good intent thought I'd enjoy their take on things, and here's why I do not:

Bond limits themselves to the well-known. Everyone's heard Pachelbel's Canon in D. Most people recognize Sam Barber's Adagio for Strings. Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Brahms may stretch the dancer's mind, but its been the soundtrack for enough cartoons that they should at least have that 'where have I heard this before moment'. There is nothing really new and original here- for the most part it is dance beats and layered overdubs put over the composition. They make no attempt to musically enhance anything, its just playing with beat and tempo and in most cases looping sections over and again.

Its not that its synthetic, I have no problem with that- its that the entire CD has no effort. It falls into place after you've heard the first track, or anything that Bond has done before. Their albums merely dissolve into "I wonder what Sam Barber's Adagio for Strings sounds like to a (blasphemous) club beat" and when the answer comes up "it sounds like his Adagio for strings overdubbed with a club beat", it loses meaning quickly.

Bond is in their own way an elitist group- giving those with no real knowledge of classical music (else they would stray from the hated Canon, and the reviled other works altered) something to say they can find 'refreshing', the disgusting term pegged on all things that angsty and indecisive people enjoy for a moment.

So the day finally came when classified was released. I even special ordered my copy and went to pick it up after work, only to be totally disappointed at the quality of the album. (...) I can see why... I dont know if they lost a certain composer or what...but the album is really lacking quality. The only track that is worth listening to is Explosive and not the remixed version. Normally, it takes me forever to listen to the entire album because each song is so good that I just keep playing it over and over again until I move onto the next, but when I popped this cd in, I listened to Explosive then skipped through the entire album...my immediate thoughts were "this is utter crap". Every track is filled with machine maniuplated sounds...special effects...where are the strings? You barely even distinguish if you are listening to Bond or some Dj machine...I felt like this album was made for Justin Timberlake or Britney Spears to dance to...they lost the special quality they had on the first two albums...the ability to mix real classical music with a twist...this album is seriously just dancing music, club/rave style...on Born they had a couple of special effect songs such as Victory, but you can still hear the strings...and the rest of the album was amazing..especially *Duel and Kismet...Gay Yee's cello playing was magnifique and Korobushko was just brilliant. If you watch the concert at Royal Albert Hall, you get chills down your spine when they play that one. On the second album Shine, (my favorite album by far), the track, Shine itself was awesome, especially the part in the middle where you feel like your spirits are lifted off the ground with their violin playing, and other favorites Strange Paradise and my favorite *Big Love Adagio...you really feel the strings being played....Gypsy Rhapsody and Libertango are also very good and shows off the skills of the artists...and of course you have your filler with special effects Bond on Bond...but on Classified...every track is pretty much a filler...a remade song..such as Lullaby..I love Canon...but what totally ruined it was the special rain dropping effect they added...and I dont even want to talk about Samba or Fly Robin Fly...just horrible, its as if this these tracks were composed for the dance dance revolution video games...you know those japanese dancing games you see at the arcades? yea that one..DDR...comes out with those fast paced crazy ass music for people to do crazy moves to... Scorchio is decent..because you can actually hear the instruments being played. Im really disappointed with this album, I felt as if I purchased a remix album. I see it like this, when you cook a dish, you want a high quality outcome, so all you need is 3-4 really good ingredients to make a really good dish. This cd however, was filled with preservatives, artificials, and unnatural flavorings. Bond, please go back to your roots. Even the cover inside was cheap, the pictures werent as good as the first 2 albums and the Thank-you's were lumped into one. It made it seem as if they really crunched out this cd within a month.

All in all, it comes down to this...If you are a first timer, and have never really heard of Bond and their work, I would highly suggest you purchase the first 2 albums. If you are a Bond fan, like myself, you will purchase this album no matter what, just to add to your collection and to support them. This is my favorite group and I even got tixs to their concert, I was really looking forward to it, but now that I've heard what's going to be played, Im less excited. I hope they play some of their old songs. Instead of being wowed by Bond's skills, I'll just pretend Im at a rave or club.