Nu Breed 5

Nubreed takes off with Marshall Jefferson's "Mushrooms" (which discusses the joys of natural psychedelics), leading into the disc's rather monotonous thoroughfare of repetitive groove and unfortunately bland styles. Photek's sideways-slamming "Glamourama" adds a bit of alien intrigue, while Axus's "When I Fall," with its stabs of ominous-sounding synth, has an intriguing darkness to it. But mostly, the first disc is on hold.

The second disc ups the ante, offering deeper, more freakish sounds atop butt-flexing beats. "Are you shitting me?" someone asks in the swirling Moroccan fantasy of John Delirious's "Orange Eyes" as beats recoil like snake charmers on parade. The liquid breakbeats of Leroj's echoing "Stickman" are like airborne sonic booms panning in larger-than-life stereo. Percussion plays a big role, and Burridge favors hard-ricocheting tracks in his trademark mixes. A woman hollers, "Let me go, you bastard, let me go!" in Wally Lopez's schizo "Patricia Never Leaves the House," a wonderfully weird blend of vocal manipulation and wave-crashing beats and sounds. The set ends with Plantastic's "Artifacts," which brings it back home with a militaristic house beat, swooping hi-hats, robot hand-claps, and a "Tubular Bells"-worthy keyboard riff. For shaking up the scene, Nubreed is a breed apart. --Ken Micallef