Disquiet

There’s nothing inherently funny about instrumental hip-hop, but that didn’t stop the Stones Throw label from hooking up with Adult Swim, the Cartoon Network block, to post a free compilation, Chrome Children 2. Amid the blaxsploitation soul and word-drunk rap are several studio concoctions, including three from Madlib, two credited to his Beat Konducta moniker, the video-game-stylin’ title cut (MP3) and the fuzzy blips of “Selah’s Children” (MP3), plus a space jam credited to the Jazzistics (aka Marcus, Martin and Malcolm produced by Yesterdays New Quintet, all of who are, by some accounts, producer Madlib flying solo), with UFO keys and free horn blurts above a steadily swinging jazz kit (MP3). Also in there, the sampled funk of J.Rocc‘s “Bubbha’s Dance,” which shows how a ratty horn break can become a percussion tool through proper editing (MP3) and a purposefully sloppy faux-live living-room jam by James Pants (MP3). Electronica fans take note: two of the album’s vocal cuts were produced by Four Tet (aka Kieran Hebden), who’s so busy he makes Prefuse 73 look like a slacker: radio-ready “Happy Now?” by Aloe Blacc (MP3) and the more underground (i.e., blippy and half-spoken) “Money Motivated Movements” by Guilty Simpson (MP3). Get it all at stonesthrow.com.

By Marc Weidenbaum