La Roc Rocs

by Dean CarlsonTaking off with an intro that is equal part John Carpenter's theme to Halloween and Primal Scream's "Kill All Hippies," yet finalizing it all with a creepy buildup of dubbed-out, jumbo synths, Cut La Roc's La Roc Rocs is a jittery smash of big beat records and eclectic, celebratory shakes that is as impressive as it is a mess. You know that Cut La Roc is no clueless bedroom studio nerd -- accomplishing the world record of simultaneously DJing with nine turntables -- but can he pull off an entire album? Certainly there are slow-roasted hip-hop ("Can U Feel") and Sugarhill Gang-sampling big beat garage (the previously four-year-old "Hip Hop Bibbedy Bop") that exude with booty-shaking head music. There are also songs collaborating with Jeepster's we're-not-as-twee-as-you'd-think Snow Patrol that is about as atypical of an indie-dance crossover as you can imagine. If anything, the album sounds great in this modular fashion. The instant you try to take it all in as a whole, however, it tends to fall apart. There is no overriding pace or mood to the album other than sliced and diced individual tracks. Even when the album takes off into the huge trance/house crossover hit of the title track, you're left in the dust of a puzzled -- seemingly slapdash -- pile of failed buildups and thematic fuzziness. In the early days of dance eclecticism, this might have been acceptable, but by now dance albums should do more than just collect a musician's favorite tracks.