*** Green Velvet

S/T

(F-111)

Sporting a day-glo yellow-feather mohawk and a chest-baring Blade Runner-esque fashion sense, Green Velvet (the alter ego of Chicago producer Curtis A. Jones) brings some much needed personality and star power to the world of knob twiddlers and vinyl jockeys. But it's not only Green Velvet's sartorial style that sets him apart, it's his bizarre music. In a series of dry-voiced monologues, Velvet spins sordid tales of nightclub hedonism, alien abduction, and illicit behavior, backed by trippy and spastic robo-funk that is all analog squelch and acid phreak. Dredging us through a series of disturbed mental states -- paranoia, isolation, and depression -- Green Velvet would be an unbearable listen if it weren't so damn funny. Schadenfreude powers the humor of "Answering Machine," where voice-mail messages inform Velvet that "the baby isn't yours," "you're being evicted," and "your life is over!" "Flash" is a candy-raver's nightmare, as Velvet leads a camera-toting PTA group on a tour of "Club Bad," uncovering joint smoking and nitrous inhaling as they go. The emotional effect is similar to the confessional description of alien probing on Alien Abduction: "It wasn't like it was painful or pleasurable, it was like the two of them."

-- Michael Endelman