** Frankie Bones

TECHNOLO-G

(ESP/SUN)

As a hip-hop DJ, Frankie Bones stands in the shoes of the wheels-of-steel men who created the cut-style foundations on which old-school rap rested. Unfortunately, Bones's technique rarely exhibits the rhythmic surprises that made the music of the old school sound as though it were being invented then and there (as it usually was). And his jams of repetition do away with the melody, progression, and swing that gave old-school rap its warmth. Occasionally, as on the Gino Soccio-sampling "Studio 54" and on "B28 (What U Wanna Be)," he plays back and forth between two riffs with just enough breathing room to let the music roam. More often, though, he flails the dancer one riff at a time and keeps on flailing him or her until all sense of fun and flesh is abolished (see "Jack It Up," "Just a Little Bit," and the disc's title cut). If one-dimensional pain is your vision, you'll like Bones's riffs.

-- Michael Freedberg