Susumi Makai introduced his world of carelessly colliding strains of dance music -- incorporating left-field disco, funk, hip-hop, and house, along with good old sloppy garage rock and spaghetti Western soundtracks -- with 12" singles that were scattered across 2001 and 2002 on the Flesh and XL labels. One of these, "Tunnel Music," appeared on
Playgroup's DJ Kicks disc in 2002, while "Serious Trouble," a similarly buoyant track with buzzing fuzz-bass riffs, also got lots of spins from DJs who adore similarly whimsical and irreverent dance-oriented labels like Output and DFA. There's no focus to Makai's debut full-length at all, but that's obviously not the point. Apart from the reliance on thick grooves and funny noises, along with liberal use of scratchy flicks of guitar, there's little common ground shared by these tracks. And while the numerous comparisons that have been drawn -- name any combination of hip artists and have them swap bodily fluids or ride funny cars together -- have mostly been bunk, there's an endearing "anything goes" playfulness at hand that more dance producers would do well to adopt. The album might be too meandering and tether-less at certain points, but the wealth of ideas practically makes it a non-issue. ~ Andy Kellman