Electronica

Latest CD releases reviewed

ESG
Keep On Moving Soul Jazz ****

The Scroggins were in the punk-funk business long before anyone brandished a cowbell and leapt onto a bandwagon. The four sisters from the South Bronx ended up in a band because their mother wanted to keep them off the mean streets of late 1970s New York. Back then, they were making music that was a Venn diagram joining punk, funk, disco and hip-hop. Now, over 25 years on from those halcyon days when ESG shared stages with The Clash and PiL, comes a new album showing they don't intend to trade off past glories. What's so impressive about Keep On Moving is just how expansive and innovative it sounds. While the new school would add all manner of percussive adornments, ESG prefer to rely on nagging, insistent basslines, spacious, rhythmic grooves and alien vocal refrains. Crisp and minimal throughout, it's bare-bones electronica with oodles of charm. www.souljazz.co.uk Jim Carroll

VARIOUS
The World Is Gone XL **

You should always get at least one brownie point for a bright idea, and Various rack up a couple for their eureka decision to mash pastel-coloured folk with an array of edgy, urban soundtracks from grime to industrial. While this may sound like the stuff of a Nathan Barley sketch, especially when Various turn out to be a nameless and faceless ensemble (all we know is that they are two producers called Adam and Ian with various accomplices and aides), they do at least deliver a couple of tracks that reward repeated listens. Yet for all the innovative stepping on show, such as the eerie Hater and the tender strides taken on Sir, there's also far too much unfocused and irritating mush on show to go unchecked. At times, Various sound like a very bad Portishead, complete with ideas such as the horrid Soho, which even stoned trip-hoppers would dismiss as risible. www.xlrecordings.com Jim Carroll

JURASSIC 5
Feedback Interscope ***

You can now tell a Jurassic 5 joint a good mile away as it comes trundling down the road. Some three and a half albums into their career, J5 are the poster boys for a post-Daisy Age way of walking and talking. No bad thing, mind, especially when albums like 2002's Power in Numbers swing around. Since that particular high watermark, J5 have toured like demons and seen founder member Cut Chemist cut loose for the solo sidelines. Feedback, then, is all about the remaining members showing steadfastness and reclaiming the flag. Nu-Mark's production, in particular, is cut from the debut EP cloth, all innocent flourishes and funky frills on Red Hot and Future Sound, with the Dave Matthews Band helping to turn Work It Out into a rocksteady banger. Meanwhile, the J5 MCs continue to pass the rap baton without missing a beat. The sound of hip-hop as it used to be. www.jurassic5.com  Jim Carroll