Like a number of tracks on
Kissey Asplund's first album, "Beam Me Up" seems to materialize and evaporate rather than begin and end. Half of the time, the Swedish space cadet's either fading in and out of consciousness or singing in her sleep, her multi-tracked voice about as tangible as the aimlessly swarming waves of synths and dotted bass tones. There's more punch to the remainder of
Plethora, laced in varying combinations by the French production team PapaJazz, who are -- like most other exponents of off-center R&B these days -- children of Dilla and Premier, but nothing is quite as hypnotizing as that song, even if it could use some Vulcan lute. Even on the most frictional track, "Fuss'n'fight," where crisply clipped percussion shards encircle lunar bass prods,
Asplund darts in and out of the mix, sounding like she didn't want to disturb a cat napping nearby, even though she's delivering an admonishment. The neo-
Guaraldi motif and PapaJazz audio logo that appear throughout the album are too cute to tolerate, but apart from those things, the album is obliquely fetching. ~ Andy Kellman