by John Bush Nearly as astonishing as 1998's excellent Making Bones, Red Snapper's third full album again finds the instrumental trio comping over a wealth of great musical ideas wedded to dub, soul-jazz, big-beat, disco, even hard rock. "Shellback" features a pounding Zeppelin breakbeat from drummer Richard Thair and a processional bassline of Ali Friend setting up vocalist Karime Kendra, who floats serenely over the entire production. Kendra resurfaces elsewhere, showing an enviable range by transforming herself into an extroverted diva for the breakbeat disco track "The Rough and the Quick." "The Rake" is a torrid beatbox-funk number with a nasally vocal effect straight out of P-Funk, while "Bussing," "Belladonna," and "They're Hanging Me Tonight" are atmospheric groove cuts with more allegiance to a classic jazz unit like Weather Report than any trip-hop act out there. Red Snapper never appear to run out of ideas or energy, and excellent production and recording unite the disparate styles into a jewel of an album.