Chemical Brothers Brother's Gonna Work It Out (Mix CD) (Virgin)

Tom and Ed of the Chemical Brothers claim that the main ingredients for a rockin' sound and a good party are Big Bass, Big Drums and Sirens--and that's exactly what you get on this CD. Noisy breakbeats and a barrage of tweaked-out synthesizers. Invite a few friends over, toss back a few cocktails and turn this up real loud and you'll have Manchester's Heavenly Social in your house. 7.5/10 (Krista)

Atomic Babies Breuklen Heightz (K-tel/Fusion III)

Who said breaks were dead? The Atomic Babies disagree. Breuklen Heightz is all about sampledelic teched-out dark acid funk, circa-1993 breakbeats and bare bones production, with a minimal techno track or two thrown in for diversity's sake. Their dad bought them a beats-and-breaks CD and a home sequencing kit for Christmas and now they have an album. It's that easy. 6.5/10 (Krista)

Clifford Gilberto Rhythm Combination I Was Young and I Needed the Money (NinjaTune/Outside)

Think Amon Tobin at Club Med, soaking up sunshine and tequila. To his credit, Gilberto has a taste for tunefulness, a genuine jazz sensibility (he knows the light stuff, anyway), sly humour and a wicked sense of style. Not to mention a facility with the keys, his natural turf. My complaint is that he frequently overdoes it with the busy beats, laying a dense, hyper-caffeinated rattle-tat on several tracks. Relax, man, you're making us nervous. 7.5/10 (Rupert Bottenberg)

Flipmode Squad The Imperial Album (Warner)

Well, Busta has gone from the one to watch in Leaders of the New School to cameo king to super-charismatic solo-phenom to the man behind the orchestration of the Flipmode Squad. Flipmode basically tries to keep things bouncin' all the time, with songs like "I Got Your Back" and "Run for Cover," while Rah Diggah and Lord Have Mercy shine on numerous tracks. Rampage takes his place as the filler MC while the rest of the crew run circles around him. Not a classic, but there's something that's making me listen and smile. Maybe it's their colour-coordinated gear in the liner notes?! 7/10 (Scott C)

Yusef Lateef Before Dawn (Verve/PolyGram)

Known as William Evans during his days with the Gillespie band, Lateef heads a superb quintet from his native Detroit. Curtis Fuller, Hugh Lawson, Ernie Farrow and Louis Hayes add much to this eight-cut release recorded in April of '57. Lateef possesses what's greatly missing in jazz today: a truly identifiable sound. Other than Bird's "Constellation," all the material is by Lateef, although "Pike's Peak" has been credited to Bernard McKinney under another title. 9/10 (Len Dobbin)