Freq Nasty: Bring Me the Head of Freq Nasty

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * *)

It's a case of local -- and spectacularly dreadlocked -- boy does good. This is the second album from the now London-based expatriate New Zealander Darin McFadyen, who is back home this weekend on turntable duties. Bring Me the Head suggests he is further refining his distinctive dancefloor attack by widening his sonic palette.

His muscular throb of breakbeat and Brit-hop also takes in bits of almost any British clubland genre you care to name. That makes for some exciting tracks, especially twitchy opener Come Let Me Know, the ragga-funk of the Roots Manuva-vocalled Boomba Clat, the hydraulic and wobbly-bottomed Punkadelic and the track with the rude name and noises to match.

But it also offers enough beat-variety and askew character to deliver a dance album that keeps you guessing and intrigued throughout.

Label: Skint