Animal Instincts

Techno Animal sounds like two dogs trapped in a car with the windows rolled up and a sampler as their only toy. They're staring death in the face and pissed off.

On The Brotherhood of the Bomb, duo JK flesh and The Bug come together as Techno Animal to produce an album that stomps through the darker side of existence to a hip-hop-inspired techno soundtrack. More than just a collection of beats, a full half of the album's 12 tracks get boosted by the lyrical presence of some notable underground wordsmiths. The off-kilter drum pattern programming perfected by Company Flow seems to provide the template for nearly all the cuts on Brotherhood. Instrumental tracks such as "Subspecies" and "Hypertension" play out like one long snarl, which start out as rather menacing but end up sounding tired and desperate after three minutes. Those tracks blessed by vocals turn out to be far more interesting.

Left fielders Anti-Pop Consortium and Def Jux superheroes El-p (formerly of Co-Flow) and Vast Air all add their talent to some otherwise middle-of-the-road fare. Released half as long as an EP, Brotherhood might have turned some heads. But sadly, the instrumentals leave these guys just another SPCA cruelty case.