Consumer Guide Album

Spring Heel Jack: 68 Million Shades . . . [Island, 1997]
Betty Boo producer cum Spiritualized guitarist John Coxon joins contemporary-classical buff cum hardcore raver Ashley Wales to recontextualize drum 'n' bass's redolent lingo--its triple-time superdrum pitta-pat, its impossible deep tremblors that modulate whole power plants in repose--by subsuming densely frenetic techno cum dancehall in a witting synthesis of electronic composition and another of Wales's passions, On the Corner-era Miles Davis. Where most jungle grooves roll on into a theoretical African eternity, Spring Heel Jack's begin and end even when they stutter or fade. The keyb scale that IDs "Take 1," the sax riff that leads into the brief keyb-and-sax tune of "60 Seconds," the sidelong three-note guitar hook that stops you every time the 75-minute CD reaches "Bar" halfway through--all recur thematically enough to lend a sense of cohesion, closure, even content. Just what the world needed--prog jungle. A