Fhonic

The most fun electronica artist you’ve never heard of is Fhonic, a South African beat manipulator whose debut CD is a constantly amusing and frequently fascinating pastiche of new- and old-school breakbeats, vintage synthesizer bleeps and warbles and episodes of brilliant hip-hop. There are hints of glitchy IDM in tracks like "Hit Me" (which combines a vintage set of James Brown vocal samples with digitally astringent electronic beats and analog sine waves) and "Hot" (which combines a sampled wah-wah guitar with similarly alien-sounding blips and glitches), while "They Don’t Know" features standard-issue chest-pounding from MC Enodna and virtuosic turntablism by DJ Episode. On "Seven," Fhonic drops a minimalist drum ‘n’ bass groove and then drops a bewildering array of vocal samples and synth tones on top of it. Highly recommended. (Visit Base 9 Records at www.base009.com.)