*** QUANNUM SPECTRUM

(Quannum Projects)

De La Soul tempered the crabapple content of 1991's sprawling De La Soul Is Dead with interludes aplenty: episodic skits that dramatized playground brawls, inane game shows, and (most crucially) the patter of the DJs on a fictional urban-contemporary station, call letters WRMS. The conceit let De La spitball clueless black-radio "personalities" while acknowledging radio itself as an inescapable city-life soundtrack.

Eight years later, the newly commissioned Quannum Projects collective (who, as the Solesides Crew, debuted in 1995 with a college-radio highlight tape, Radio Sole) drop a disc hosted by "Mack B-Dog," an actual jock captured live on the sleep-deprivation shift. For DJ Shadow, Latyrx, Blackalicious, and the rest of Quannum's house mavericks, Mack's drawl signifies how far left of the dial we are. Quannum Spectrum's playlist has a deceptive rootsiness -- cuts like "Concentration," teaming the Quannum stable with Jurassic 5, feel totally trad in spirit. But Sugar Hill Gang's Big Bank Hank would swear off White Castle to crack this wise and flow this fluidly. And at the end of the broadcast day, Spectrum is less about roots-rap sole searching and more about saving soul music itself, handing R&B's debased fundamentals back to the non-hacks. Joyo Velarde's "People like Me" is as supple as peak Brand New Heavies (thank you, N'Dea), and Lyrics Born (this disc's jumpout star) maximizes his funky bellow on "I Changed My Mind," weaving between the buttons, flaunting pipes as gritty as an old Chess single.

-- Alex Pappademas