Julien Dyne - Pins & Digits

Rating: * * * *

It seems that if you let a drummer loose to record their very own solo album they go a little wild and crazy. Late last year Riki Gooch, former Trinity Roots drummer and now sticksman to the stars, released a delirious and challenging soul album as Eru Dangerspiel.

And now Julien Dyne, best known as the drummer in hip-hop soul group the Open Souls and Tyra and the Tornadoes, who has also worked with Fat Freddys Drop and Ladi6, has come up with a similarly fruity creation on his debut solo album.

Away from the comfy cushion of his drum stool, he brings together a captivating, and at times bonkers, concoction of electronic beats and bleeps alongside traditional instruments, including brass and Rhodes piano.

First track Steel Legs gets your brain pinging with its off-kilter glitch, then it's into the honking horn beats of Layer , which features Mara TK (currently one of New Zealand's best voices) - and the deadened clatter and erratic thrumming of Behind the Forage is brilliantly maddening.

For something more cruisy there's the head-nodding interlude of Toothnail and Fallin Down saunters along with smoky Rhodes and deliciously dreamy vocals from Ladi6's musical collaborator, Parks.

Pins and Digits is not as demanding as Eru Dangerspiel and it will go down well with hip-hop heads, beatfreaks and lovers of soulful, modern day jazz alike.

Scott Kara