**1/2 Big Bud

INFINITY + INFINITY

(Good Looking)

Since his seminal 1996 collection, Logical Progression, LTJ Bukem has released some great atmospheric drum 'n' bass recordings on his Good Looking imprint, all with one common fault: everything's cut from a similar-sounding, Bukem-mimicking cloth of head-nodding, ambient-leaning breakbeats. Big Bud continues in the Bukem tradition, offering 70 minutes of smoothly mixed drum 'n' bass on his full-length debut, with only a couple forays into downbeat territory and a very minimal tweaking of Logical Progression's atmospheric formula. The grooves here aren't totally unfriendly to the dance floor. But to judge from this artist's name, the new agey soundscapes and swirling atmospheres he seems to prefer, and the numerous weed references on Infinity + Infinity -- including song titles like "High Times" and "Blunt" -- Big Bud had spacing out on the couch in mind when he was working on these tracks, not nightclubbing.

-- Michael Endelman