Tourettes - Who Said You Can't Dance To Misery?

Rating: * * * *

It's the eerie beats and oppressive atmosphere you notice first about this Auckland hip-hop artist's second album. They take the wind out of you and there's a temperamental flow, like obscure hip-hop act Dalek. Yet Tourettes conjures up the energy and liveliness of De La Soul.

Overall though it's his cheeky, clever, uncompromising sense of humour that rises above everything else. Take first track, Asshole, which has different people (including Mike Skinner from The Streets) offering up why they think Tourettes is an asshole - with hilarious effect. "He's my boyfriend and I think he's an asshole," says his girlfriend - who proceeds to give a number of reasons why, including how he gave a friend of hers laxatives and told her they were vegan chocolates.

Then there's a sweeter side to Tourettes on Almost Out Of Water, with a clip-clopping beat, a soothing 80s synth, and the cooing of Anna Coddington.

Who Said You Can't Dance To Misery? is posturing and powerful but without the faux bravado of most hip-hop. As he proclaims: "MCs are boring, hip-hop is dead". Take a listen to throbbing last track The End for proof of that.

Scott Kara