Burnt Friedman's peripatetic career as a bandleader has found him dabbling in many different genres of electronic dance music, but his reggae-inflected Nu Dub Players have been a fairly constant home base since their formation in 1997.
Can't Cool finds the band working through a mostly gentle but still deeply weird program of postmodern reggae and avant-garde dub, with mostly rewarding results. The album's opening track is something of a waste of time, but "Dublab Alert," with its stutter-stop rhythm and spooky ambience, is lots of fun, as are the avant-dub "Life Is Worth Dying For" (which features muttered vocals by Patrice) and the gauzily pretty "Designer Groove" (which features nicely layered saxophone parts). None of this is really music for dancing, but it works pretty well as a soundtrack for sitting at home and reading on a rainy evening. ~ Rick Anderson