Of course the exception — as they say — proves the rule. Imagine my surprise to have not one but two phenomenal exceptions cross my desk the last few weeks. Both sets are welcome reminders that a remix album can be art in its own right, rather than just a money grab with a beat.

“Adapt Or Die: Ten Years Of Remixes”
Everything But The Girl (Sire/Atlantic)

From the breezy “Driving” to the dance-pop smash “Missing” to the drum-n-bass reinvention of bossa nova standard “Corcovado,” vocalist Tracey Thorn and instrumentalist Ben Watt have amassed a catalog that overflows with quality material.

Over the years the British duo have entrusted some of their best songs, including those aforementioned, to a select list of remixers. “Adapt Or Die” collects 14 of these reworkings (some rare or previously unreleased, some newly commissioned) for the first time.

“Reinterpretation is at the heart of all great music,” says Watt. “For me, the modern remix is part of that tradition. We began our career mixing cover versions — reinterpretation in themselves — of other people’s songs with our own, and 15 years later welcomed the chance to see our work dismantled and rebuilt.”

It’s not surprising that Watt feels this way. He’s an acclaimed remixer himself who has worked with the likes of Sade, Sunshine Anderson, Zero 7, Maxwell, Meshell Ndegeocello and Sandy Rivera. (He also founded London’s legendary deep house club night Lazy Dog — after running five years it ended in 2003 at the height of its popularity.)

Such insider status pays dividends on “Adapt Or Die” because Watt knows how to match the right song with the right remixer — Kenny Dope, DJ Jazzy Jeff, King Britt, Todd Terry, Jay “Sinister” Sealee, Brad Wood, Knee Deep and Kevin Yost among them.

These mixmasters deliver tracks that encompass broken beat (“Rollercoaster”), vocal house (“Missing”) trip hop (“Single”) and drum-n-bass (“Blame”) without ever devolving into faceless “dance music.”

It’s a thrill to hear Everything But The Girl get the Everything But The Kitchen Sink treatment on “Adapt Or Die” and have it all work so beautifully.

“Mayfield: Remixed - The Curtis Mayfield Collection”
Curtis Mayfield (Rhino)

If there was a Justice League for superhero musical artists, Curtis Mayfield would be a member. His hero name would be Soul Man and he would have the power to expose racial injustice and spread love throughout the world. Hmmm, now that I think about it, maybe Mayfield was a superhero.

He certainly sounds like one in the hands of the 10 remixers who rework his best-known material on “Mayfield: Remixed.” Superstar house DJ Louie Vega turns “Superfly” into a deep dish anthem replete with live bass and latin percussion, King Britt builds “Little Child Runnin’ Wild” into a trip hop epic, while Grammy winner Maurice Joshua’s Nu Soul Mix of “(Don’t Worry) If There’s A Hell Below We’re All Going To Go” is a funky, head-nodding workout.

Mayfield’s career was tragically cut short in 1990 when a lighting rig fell on him during a concert in Brooklyn. The accident left him a quadriplegic. He died in 1999 at the age of 57, just a few months after his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“ One of the reasons to do this remix album was to have Curtis’s legacy continue on to yet another generation,” says executive producer Ron Weisner. “When you stop and reflect on a man of integrity, principle and true creative genius, it is important to keep his words and music alive.”

Mayfield helped lay the groundwork for soul music in the early 1960s as a founding member of The Impressions. The group’s songs (including “We’re A Winner” and “People Get Ready,” both of which are remixed for this collection) offered messages of racial pride and spirituality that made lyricist Mayfield a powerful voice in the nascent civil rights movement.

When he left The Impressions in the late ’60s, Mayfield cemented his status with a string of acclaimed solo albums, but it was “Superfly,” his groundbreaking 1972 companion album to the movie of the same name, that brought him his greatest success and gave us classic chronicles of ghetto life in songs like “Freddie’s Dead,” “Pusherman,” and the title cut.

The reverence that the new album’s remixers have for Mayfield’s material isn’t just evidenced by their glowing comments in the liner notes — it’s also audible in the way they interpret his art. Each one pushes himself to create a track that’s worthy of the original and the results are transcendent.

“In assembling this all-star team of musical spin doctors from around the world,” says album co-executive producer Brad LeBeau, “it is my hope that the very same music that had such a profound effect on my youth will be rediscovered and appreciated today.”

As superheros often say after a job well done: “Mission accomplished.”