Label: Brownswood/Talkin' Loud
Country: Japan

For one of the most consistently inventive groups in mix culture, United Future Organization's debut falls way too close to the aural wallpaper zone. The influences -- cool jazz, light funk, and Brazilian percussion -- stand out as separate entities rather than meld together, and the rhythms are usually surprisingly static for a group predicated on making dancefloor denizens move. "The Sixth Sense" and "L.O.V.E" are dragged down by dull drumming before the Brazilian "Upa Neguinho" injects a bit of rhythm life. The songs centered around samples of beat icon Jack Kerouac and vocal jazzhero Jon Hendricks fare well, but elsewhere the repetition too often is just boring rather than pulling you into a groove. Only the Parisian cabaret accordion and Monday Michiru's vocals on "My Foolish Dream" and the breakout finale, "Off Road," really register strongly. United Future Organization is still obviously fitting the pieces of their sonic puzzle together and it shows in the timid, tentative mix as much as the music. From the evidence here, you wouldn't have expected the group to be capable of the quantam leap to No Sound Is Too Taboo -- but United Future Organization did just that.AMG

Tracklisting:

1.The Sixth Sense (7:06) Vocals - Galliano
2.On Est Ensemble Sans Se Parler-L.O.V.E. (5:01)
3.Vinyl Junkie (5:39)
4.Upa Neguinho (4:22)
5.I'll Bet You Thought I'd Never Find You (7:50)
6.Poetry And All That Jazz (5:36)
7.Be Here Now (3:02)
8.My Foolish Dream (6:01) Vocals - Monday Michiru
9.Off Road (2:51)