* Insane Clown Posse

THE GREAT MILENKO

(Island)

Showing a dazzling disregard for what a wise man once described as the fine line between clever and stupid, Insane Clown Posse -- a white rap duo in dreadlocks and evil-clown make-up -- are remarkable only for their failure to turn a mixture of mad violence, horror-movie synth tracks, bathroom humor, and a silly pseudo-mystical concept involving ninjas and magicians into anything remotely threatening or even accidentally funny. The holy grail for these guys, who were apparently raised on a strict diet of Kiss, early 2 Live Crew, and the Jerky Boys, would be something resembling the absurdist juvenilia of the Beasties' License to Ill. But they end up coming closer to a third-rate blunt-burnt Cypress Hill trying to scam the Gravediggaz out of their mojo hand. More proof of how vapid the world's gonna be if Marilyn Manson have the last word on spooky: mundane faux evil could be the undoing of us all.

-- Carly Carioli