The Minneapolis sound is alive and well ... and living in Portland, Oregon.

On this debut, the Dan Reed Network fuses keyboard-heavy funk and jagged garage-band guitar with a wizardry that would make even the Purple One proud. The band members deftly sidestep musical barriers – borrowing a dirty bass workout here, adding a brash power chord there – and serve up an onslaught of molten hyper-funk that is held in check only by an occasional foray into balladry.

"World Has a Heart Too," "Get to You," "Baby Don't Fade" and "Human" are the standouts, all packing a wallop with pulsating Gap Band rhythms and chiseled guitar. Vocalist Dan Reed wends his way in and around the mix with a trick-bag fusion of smoldering soul and icy, ragged screams.

A whopping nine of the eleven tracks are devoted to romance, and no phase in the cycle of courtship is neglected. Clichés, however, are surprisingly minimal; the songs rely more on sly innuendo than blatant overstatement.

The two exceptions – "I'm So Sorry," which mourns a teenage suicide, and "World Has a Heart Too," a streetwise rap espousing unity and activism – exhibit a sensitivity and tact in dealing with weightier issues. Those strengths should perhaps be more heavily mined on the band's next effort.

Producer Bruce Fairbairn (Bon Jovi, Aerosmith) deserves a nod for adding just the right amount of pop polish where it's needed and keeping his mainstream fingers out of the rest of the pie. Even the weaker songs on Dan Reed Network have sneaky hooks that materialize in the nick of time and lure the unwary listener into giving the album a second spin. This is a debut that should leave those who hear it eagerly awaiting a follow-up. (RS 532)

KIM NEELY