Musically Massive

The story behind this album is almost laughably unlikely: club music producer David Last was on vacation in Australia, putting some dancehall beats together and looking for a vocalist. A colleague directed him to Chicago-based dancehall singer Zulu, and Last sent him a track via e-mail. Zulu voiced it and sent it back. The result was so good that they made an entire album that way, which the honchos at Berlin-based label Staubgold subsequently heard, thus completing a geographically enormous triangle along which enough data eventually flowed to create this finished product, a tremendously entertaining fusion of dubstep, reggaeton, dancehall, electro, and pop that hits a high energy level from the very beginning and never really flags. The title may be somewhat ironic: although the impact of this music is pretty massive, its construction is often quite minimal. Check out the bare-bones Roland 909 accompaniment to the bouncing "Exhibition Virtue," or the even more minimalist "Ever Ready." In fact, when the sound thickens up the impact tends to fade a bit, as on the enjoyable but somewhat more pedestrian "Necessary Evils." But before you can register disappointment with those tracks, you'll be lifted out of your seat again by such top-notch fare as the energetically chugging "Caresss" or the fun combination track "Put Me on Your Guest List." If you want a sneak preview of what dancehall reggae is likely to sound like ten years from now, this may be as good a guess as any.