*1/2 Nigo

APE SOUNDS

(Mo Wax)

After successful gigs as a punk drummer for the Tokyo Sex Pistols and a fashion photographer, Tokyo native Nigo native authored a tastemaking column for Last Orgy 2 and launched the universally cool Bathing Ape clothing line. But on Ape Sounds, the career hipster's debut CD, he falls captive to his own coolness. Nigo's use of hip-hop as a bridge to other musical forms (reggae and 4AD-style dream pop, to name two) is as predictable as Ape Sounds' guest list, which includes Ben Lee, Cornelius, and the Scratch Perverts. The echoing expanse of "Too Much" makes good use of silence as tiny guitar lines modestly shadow a driving bass line and Karime Kendra's mournful singing. A bonus track expands on this æsthetic of subtlety, alluding to the murky, unformed minimalism of Major Force West's more experimental work. Slashing their way through thick sitars and undulating, watery bass, the Beatnuts show up for a severely stoned cameo, but even that can't make up for insipid fare like the over-the-top, Orientalist kitsch strings of "Kung Fu Fightin' " and the clean, harmless punk pose of "Jet Set" -- it's clear that the goal here is simply to be cool. And so Nigo dabbles in hip-hop, punk, dub, pop, and rock without ever managing to do the one thing that's been his true talent in the past -- creating style.

-- Hua Hsu