Pest

Ah, Ninja Tune — you may change over the years but you’re still Ninja Tune. At first threatening to be an entire disc of flaccid funk, luckily things pick up nicely for the jazzy UK garage number "Pat Pong.” Then things go all Afrobeat for "Click Bitches,” and then a nice little pop song called "WuJu” with an unfortunate British rap. Following that is perhaps the most classically Ninja Tune track on the album, a down-tempo jazzy instrumental with a skippy beat. More rap follows over what sounds like a half-speed nu-skool breaks track. The randomness continues though Basement Jaxx-like funk, then Soul Coughing-like spastic rock-outs, then, well, you name it really. It doesn’t all work — see the aforementioned rapping — but it works quite often considering. I imagine this five-man band kick ass live, and the album’s not half bad.