***1/2 Wamdue Project

PROGRAM YOURSELF

(Strictly Rhythm)

Of the many disco CDs influenced by the huge success of Robert Miles's seminal Dreamland, producer Chris Brann's Wamdue Project goes straightest to the fusion-jazz heart of the matter. Synthesizer mood music, Afro-jazz trumpet work, snoozy soprano voices, and touchy percussion are all molded, deeply, into the four-on-four pump of house music. The joyous high-pitched synthesizer solo of "King of My Castle," for example, is directly lifted from Kool & the Gang's 1975 hit "Summer Madness" (repeated in the next cut, "Like This"). From the gauzy "Spirit" and "Instrumentation" to the bump dance "Are You High?" and the vogueish "Walk with Me," the CD goes way, way, back in time, to early disco funk (Jimmy Castor's "Troglodyte" and Earth Wind & Fire's "Reasons" and "Kalimba Story" all pop up), seeking out the fanciful ease that fusion-jazz style imparted to that era's jungle boogie-ing. Tracks like "Where Do We Go" and "You're the Reason" suggest that fusion technique can also help dissolve the rough edges of today's techno.

-- Michael Freedberg