**1/2 Monkey Mafia

SHOOT THE BOSS

(Arista/Heavenly)

John Carter, known to ravers as Monkey Mafia, adds some Jamaican flava to the caffeinated cocktail of rock muscle, acid-house delirium, hip-hop attitude, and slamming beats known to the masses as big beat -- the rock-'em/sock-'em genre popularized by Norman "Fatboy Slim" Cook and the Chemical Brothers. Carter specializes in cross-fading NYC hip-hop grooves and Caribbean patois into supersized jams, bringing reggae, jungle, ska, and dancehall toasting into Big Beat's usual hip-hop hooray. "Work Mi Body" aerobicizes with "woo-hah!" shout-outs, turntable flexing, and spaghetti-western guitar-slinging. Give Carter credit for putting a new spin on a style that could grow old fast, even if the disc's militant title, its 1960s photos of riot-torn urban America, and its co-option of ghetto musics, all for the consumption of suburban nightclubbers, sometimes border on bad taste. He also eschews much of the pranksterism that makes big beat so much fun, a stance that has led him to record the genre's first power ballad, a humorless cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "As Long as I Can See the Light."

-- Patrick Bryant