The pioneering drum-and-bass artist Photek has described jungle music as the newest form of DIY experimentation. DJs and remixers, most without musical training, have used the sampler to shatter conventional dance music with break-beat rhythms.

James Braddell, a k a Funki Porcini, takes the new beat science a step beyond the hyperfast bpms of typical jungle. Not only does he cut up jungle break beats but also swing rhythms, squishy hip-hop thumps, James Brown-styled funk and even Afro-Cuban drumming. Juxtaposing this fragmented mayhem with jazzy instrumentation and noirish atmospherics, Love, Pussycats and Carwrecks is like a hot-air balloon bobbing through an electrified storm front.

While Braddell is fascinated by rhythm – he often drastically changes tempo and style within a single song – he is also a master of mood, choosing his samples with an attention to detail and humor. "Carwreck" goes from vibrant jazz fusion to mutant bèbop; "Elephantitus" sets a spectral trombone against a bleak, Tricky-style urban-futurist setting. Loosely based around themes of violence, death and the afterlife, the album ends with "Going Down," a slow-mo track that springs like a diver momentarily coming to the surface for air. Though too much drum and bass is built on a narrow formula of speedy beats and ethereal tones, Funki Porcini broadens break-beat culture with orchestral vision and street-wise wit. (RS 748)

KEN MICALLEF