Dum Dum Project

Some of the most exciting dance music of the last five or six years has come out of London, where a volatile cultural mix of British whites, West Indian blacks and East Indian in-betweens has generated not only social tension but also spectacularly successful musical fusions—most notably jungle (which, in its international variants, is now typically called drum ‘n’ bass) and the multifaceted dance music phenomenon known as the Asian Underground. The New York-based (and inauspiciously named) Dum Dum Project now does something similar from a U.S. perspective, combining Indian tonalities and percussion sounds with trip-hop, dub and funk elements. The result is sometimes a bit too cloyingly mystical, but for the most part, its rubbery grooves and exotic atmosphere combine to produce the perfect chill-out record. Recommended. Visit www.groovysounds.com.