SWANKYÉ that's the mood of the packaging at least on this two-CD setÉ. But the music? Uh, that'd be quite MENACING! Davie Allan & the Arrows were the mofos who picked the FUZZ outta some biker-flick soundtracks. And I said FUZZ, so don't expect any "incidental" moody jazz/funk or strung-with-strings "soundtrack" sounds, rather expect DA & the A first to spit in yer eye and THEN punch you in the face with surf-ish instrumental and fuzzed out ROCK! Way cool for the "soundtrack" value AND single sides, but these tracks stand as pimple-faced fuck-offsÉ bikers, on screen or off, couldn'ta asked for a more fitting SOUND. And that's sayin' LOTS as it's hard to keep guitar-driven instros appealing beyond kitsch, but Allan is a clever fella, and his leads never fail to maintain excitement or a sinister mood with ace pop appeal! Yeah, so like, Devil's RumbleÉ SIZZLES! MIKE NIPPER

PAUL D. MILLER (DJ SPOOKY)
Rhythm Science
(The MIT Press)
***

Though sold as a book, and also conceived as one, DJ Spooky's Rhythm Science instead takes the form of an ultimate liner note--exhaustive, dificult, and monstrously comprehensive. Not unlike the book Traum und Existenz, in which Michel Foucault's introduction was longer than the book itself, Spooky's CD, C-Side, comes with the notes instead of the other way around--the notes accompanying the CD. C-Side contains a hiphop mix that's in the spirit of those wondrous late-night rap radio shows of the early '80s, like WBLS's Mr. Magic's Show or the World Famous Supreme Team Show, which Malcolm McLaren made famous in 1982 with "Buffalo Girls." But the big difference is that the rappers on Spooky's mix are modernist poets, writers, and philosophers. Antonin Artaud, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, and Gilles Deleuze are sampled and merged with dreamy hiphop beats. Most impressive of all, it actually works. C-Side doesn't feel forced or gimmicky or experimental. This is a late-night show that just happens to have Marcel Duchamp as one of its featured rappers. CHARLES MUDEDE

RUBYHORSE
Goodbye to All That
(Brash Music)
***

Rubyhorse's Goodbye to All That is the product of a roundabout history: The four-piece band was raised in Cork, Ireland, then moved to Boston in 1997 and secured a deal with Island, releasing an album that gave them all kinds of attention but compromised their integrity. Now Rubyhorse is on Brash Music (based in Atlanta, Georgia) with a new album recorded in Nashville with Jay Joyce. Having forged a happy relationship with a label that let the band run free, Goodbye to All That reflects a sound they feel is all their own. What Rubyhorse really is, then, is a melodious, sometimes crestfallen, entirely honest account of memories, both downhearted and yearning. KATHLEEN WILSON

**** Savage Love *** One Day at a Time ** I Love Television * I, Anonymous