Sirround Sound

This exotic melange of global music styles is generally quite enjoyable. It begins with an African groove on "Mojuba," moves into spoken-word material by a Latino woman on "En la Concina con Abuela," shifts into horn samples and more percussion, slides into drum'n'bass, mellows out with dub on the predictably titled "Uptown Rockers Dub," delves into conventional hip-hop on a couple tracks, showcases alto saxophonist (and Djinji Brown's father) Marion Brown on "Papa Marion's Fight," and ends with rappers Asheru and Blue Black on "Enter the Sound (Emotional Content)." The experiments with different world styles are exhilarating, with "Abuuelita's Dance" and the also-danceable "Apache's Revenge" (featuring samples of Burgess Meredith and dedicated "for all my red n****s on the Rez") the two highlights of the album. The more straightforward hip-hop, however, is relatively routine and contributes more to this project's eclecticism than to its overall quality. It probably would have been a good idea to prune some of it, particularly considering that the album runs for over 50 minutes.