Disquiet

Stud‘s I Saw the Future album, the Kikapu netlabel’s 93rd, puts its rhythms first, but it doesn’t worship them. They’re either slow enough to feel like they’re about to disintegrate at the seams, as on “Supertaeb” (MP3), or fast enough to suggest your MP3 player’s gonna blow a gasket, as on “Marchello (Bonus)” (MP3), which breaks between snippets with an erratic joy that’s more cut-up than mash-up, and on “Joyrexnme182″ (MP3), an unfortunately brief Aphex Twin hommage that has more downbeats than it knows what to do with. The best track, “Photon Map” (MP3), takes vocal samples as its main riff, layering them with chamber-pop efficiency and elegance. More info on Stuf (aka Alexey Devyanin, of the Russian duo Gultskra Artikler) at kikapu.com.

By Marc Weidenbaum