Cut Chemist: The Audience's Listening (Warner Bros.)

Early word had esteemed turntablist, sonic landscaper and beat inventor Cut Chemist making his solo debut, his first recording following splitting the Jurassic 5 crew and apart from work with Ozomatli and the block-rockin’ outings Brain Freeze and Product Placement with DJ Shadow, as something of a far removed break from the tried and true template of the “DJ record.” This album isn’t quite a radical departure for the inventive needle and groove maestro (real name Lucas Mcfadden), but there’s enough here to turn the ear of those even outside of the hip-hop underground’s walls. At the same time, the ever loyal and vigilant headphone set is likely to remain enthralled with the Chemist’s latest experimentations, straight from his laboratory of vinyl crates, that spread across The Audience’s Listening’s 12 tracks. He has fun splicing in lush strings and snatches of Brazilian tropicalia for the cool charm of ”The Garden.” The laid-back groove and easy bass line of “Spoon” bears the old school cool paraphernalia and soulful markings of a J5 track, while “What’s the Altitude,” complete with hypnotic guitar line and funky cowbell, has guest emcee Hymnal dropping easygoing rhymes. The head-bobbing scratch fanatics will find plenty to love in the future primitive beat banging of “Metrorail Thru Space” as well as in the kitchen sink mashup nature and heavy duty cutting and scratching on “Spat,” a track that revisits the charged but fun atmosphere of the Shadow collaborations. What Cut Chemist proves here is that he has a vast record collection and, like his cohort Shadow, he is unafraid to mine in order to yield entirely new sounds and wonderfully head-spinning results.