Out of Breach: Manchester's Revenge [Audio CD] Mu

On their sophomore album, producer Maurice Fulton and his wife, Mutsumi Kanamori, a.k.a. Mu, make broken-beat house music with a free-for-all, disco-punk aesthetic that sounds even broken-er than their debut. And thatâ??s totally meant as a compliment. The duo, here augmented by lots of scrappy "real"-sounding congas and bells and such, make hilariously over-the-top music that's fun, screwed-up, and accessible (yes, you can dance to it). Kanamori's Dada vocals seem somehow very Japanese, in the sense that the Boredoms, After Dinner, and Shonen Knife are very Japanese. Check the obvious single, "Paris Hilton," with its chicken squawks (are they calling the heiress a chicken head or saying that she looks like a chicken or is it just totally nonsense?) and drunken jackhammer electro beat. Out of Breach sounds like LCD Soundsystem making music for an old Nintendo system and freed, at least a bit, from the tyranny of the beat. --Mike McGonigal