*1/2 Adam F

COLOURS

(Astralwerks)

Junglist Adam F's debut full-length really ought to be packaged with an oversized hardbound book crammed with pictures of spiral galaxies and healing crystals. An ever-so-tasteful coffee table is exactly where this unadventurous package of F's 1995-'97 singles belongs. That's not to imply that Colours lacks musical ideas; it's just that the arrangements don't stray a millimeter from the hidebound form of the dance-floor jungle anthem. All the signatures of "jazzy" jungle are there: muted trumpets, synth washes, and restrained but funky drum programming. Indeed, the high point is "73," which channels the improvisational intensity of a jazz-fusion combo into jungle's swirling polyrhythms.

But the rest (with the partial exception of the shuffle-funk "F Jam") devolves into jungle-by-numbers -- you know the jig is up when you hear those hackneyed police-car-siren samples. Even Roni Size, the current master rethinker of jungle's place in the pop universe, can't seem to find any room for innovation on his remix of F's signature hit "Circles." Dystopia has never sounded so pretty, and that's precisely the problem.

-- Chris Tweney