SONIA BOMBS THE DANCE FLOOR... Even in remixed form, it's not often that you hear a folk song on the dance floor. And it's almost as rare to hear a politically charged song there. But with any luck, you'll soon hear both at once. Baltimore-based lesbian folk singer SONiA has just released remixes of her song ''No Bomb Is Smart,'' a song originally drawn from her third solo record, the same-titled 2004 album that garnered SONiA her first Grammy nomination. The original was a rocking folk gem, with angry beats, mournful strings and SONiA's sunny and sweet voice singing pointed antiwar lyrics. Most obviously, about how oxymoronic it is to call any bomb a smart bomb. Now SONiA has commissioned remixes in an attempt to drum up new attention on the occasion of the third anniversary of the Iraq War's start. It's her first foray into the realm of dance music. ''If people can dance together," she says in a press release, "we can live together."
Available for purchase at her band Disappear Fear's Web site (www.disappearfear.com), all remixes feature rapid-fire military-esque beats, which suit the dance floor and, in a warped way, the song. But the up-and-coming local musician Blake Althen provides the primo remix here, besting the better-known New York-based Twisted Dee. Dee's Tribal Mix is appealing and entirely smart, with its bombs and siren sounds that she keeps from turning into all out war on the listener's ears and nerves. The remix isn't especially captivating, however. You could say it doesn't quite detonate as expected, or with the same force as Althen's Anthem Mix. His version, like the original, is both sweet and moody, and it marches to a bubbling beat. Althen keeps things light, with the focus squarely on SONiA's lyrics....