** Krust

CODED LANGUAGE

(Talkin' Loud)

In the video for "Coded Language," a drum 'n' bass collaboration between the crusty-afro'd Krust and the even crustier poetry slammer Saul Williams that's actually gotten some airtime on BET, Krust plays the mad scientist and Williams the black Moses. The single, from Krust's Coded Language CD, is about as un-Puffy as hip-hop-derived music gets, with Williams breaking down the connection "between the diasporic community and its drum-woven past," reminding us of our "responsibility to uplift the consciousness of the entire fucking world," and name-dropping the likes of Ginsberg, Gandhi, and Cosby over Krust's relentless off-kilter beats and battle-scarred soundscapes. Krust's production aesthetic stays true to that level of intensity throughout Coded Language, with dive-bombing bass lines, explosive techno rumbles, and Imperial Stormtrooper laser-fire sound effects. But with the exception of Williams's word slinging and his kinetic, transatlantic dialogue (which on the album amounts to a spellbinding eight minutes that reconciles poetry, hip-hop, and breakbeat science), Coded Language falters and degrades into a bombastic, one-sided shouting match.

-- Michael Endelman