The Colossus RJ's Electrical Connections ***

You've probably clocked hip-hop producer RJD2's work without realising it, thanks to the use of his Beautiful Mineas the theme tune to Mad Men. That track and his 2002 album, Deadringer, demonstrated RJ Krohn's semi-unique selling points: intrumental hip-hop cuts with much soulful flavour and funky punch. By 2007's The Third Hand, though, Krohn had decided to take up singing – with mixed results, to say the least. Here, he seeks to keep everyone happy but he should leave the singing alone; it's headspinning monsters like Let There Be Hornsthat we really want to hear. That powerful, energetic burst of beatronica, all Indian fringes and flourishes, is something of a tease, because Krohn prefers to submerge chunky beats and crisp ideas with sub-par lyrical musings like The Glow.A pity, because his instrumental passages are fairly peerless. See myspace.com/rjd2

Download tracks: Let There Be Horns