Murena Records

Creepy cool trip-hop from Danish producer Morten Varano and London singer Lady Z melds jazz, hip hop, electronic sounds and hints of world percussion. The duo's first album wends its way effortlessly through icy trances like "Stoned Rays" to the vaguely Bhangra-beat soulfulness of "Tell Me Somethin'" and into "Slow Train"'s lonely sax and drum machine groove. There's more than a hint of jazz in the beats -- in "Naturally"'s stand-up bass and shuffling snare brushes -- and in Lady Z's glorious deep-throated alto, especially on album highlight "In the Black of Night". Here, a high, repetitive keyboard line gives way to her big, soulful voice, exploding, appropriately enough, in the lyrics "bang, bang, bang / feel the killah lead". It's quite simply the best James Bond theme that's never been. A jazz and blues singer by training, Lady Z sounds quite a bit like Shirley Bassey; like Bassey, she brings a warmth and depth to precise and intellectual cuts, but she's also fully capable of unaffectedly natural emotion. Consider acoustic track "Twisted Cupid": it's perhaps the simplest, most unfiltered-sounding song on the album -- just guitars and Z's astounding, layered tale of difficult love for a married man. This is excellent stuff -- deeply chilled, yet somehow, at its core, warm and human.