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PREFUSE 73 Security Screenings Warp ***

Guillermo Scott Herren is fond of an alter-ego or two, and some astute sleevenote sleuthing will find his moniker on releases by Savath & Savalas, Delarosa & Asora, Piano Overload and La Correcion. But it's as Prefuse 73 that the producer carries out his most high-profile tubthumping. Such releases as One Word Extinguisher have seen him chopping and stirring a perpetually frothing glitch-hop stew. As admirable and exciting as Herren's acrobatic splicing can be, there have been moments (many of them on last year's Surrounded by Silence album) when less could indeed have been more. Such a criticism also applies here, especially when Herren chooses sonic hopscotch over teasing out one single idea. The album highlight is Creating Cyclical Headaches, a collaboration with Kieran "Four Tet" Hebden, in which both producers find common ground where their individual métiers connect. Its electronic teases hint at where Herren should now go. www.prefuse73.com

Jim Carroll