*** Peanut Butter Wolf

MY VINYL WEIGHS A TON

(Copasetik/Stones Throw)

The Wolf is really a mild-mannered Northern Cali DJ named Chris Manak. He's the producer behind underground treasures like the Step on Our Egos EP and the DJ-oriented Peanut Butter Breaks collection, but on his debut long-player, he comes off like a trash-cultured punk creating rap music 'cause he never dug Redd Kross, flexing a style equally informed by hip-hop fundamentalism and half-remembered Land of the Lost reruns.

At times, My Vinyl is so subtle it's almost subliminal, goosing slow-and-edgy breaks and spooky soul-shack melodies with nutty samples (Irving Berlin strings, Casio drums, flanged horns, live kazoo) until you don't know whether to crack up laughing or check the closet for bogeymen. Most of the guest MCs are top-shelf; Zest the Everliving's polysyllabic flow does everything but shiatsu the bass line on "Interruptions"; Dave Dub rants through "Necromancin' " like a hieroglyphic with a headache. And the eight-minute, 12-DJ "A Tale of Five Cities," featuring every turntablist from Jurassic 5's Cut Chemist to classic-rock waxmaster Z-Trip, will give Technics geeks those multiple orgasms that Cosmo subscribers only dream about. Bathroom-humor hit: "Theme from a Peanut Butter Wolf," where a Rudy Ray Moore type makes an X-rated acronym out of the DJ's name. Leave it to Bay Area hip-hop to teach us that the "U" in "Butter" stands for "unicorn ass."

-- Alex Pappademas