D-LIST-Martino 31 SUMMER SONICS For music lovers, this summer has been ...

meta name="generator" content="Created with GLUON WebXPress 5.2" />

SUMMER SONICS For music lovers, this summer has been hard. We've had to deal with a slew of mediocre pop hits, tired retro rock acts and all our cool friends telling us how good minimal techno is. But, please, don't down that bottle of Draino just yet. The sun is out. People are throwing burgers on the grill. And I, fellow music lover, will never give up searching for great records and compilations with the right groove. Never. Ever. Even though it compromises my getting laid. Often.

Life:Styles—compiled by Coldcut (Harmless Records) This UK production duo of Jonathan More and Matt Black Coldcut is best known for the "Seven Minutes of Madness" remix on Eric B. and Rakim's early hiphop staple "Paid in Full." Life:Styles isn't a seamless mix, but a crate-digging experience with these obsessive collectors and studio hacks. Coldcut start out with a sunshine-soaked cover of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" by Bobby Shad and the Bad Men. When I first heard this, I thought a marching band from Howard University was going to break down my door.

If I ever find the Barbara Randolph version of "Can I Get a Witness," I promise to retire and find a real job. For now, the one on this compilation will do. The song is so joyous in all its northern-soul 60s swing, it will have you throwing talcum powder on a hardwood floor to glide around like you're at a soul all-nighter.

With DFA revitalizing disco punk and labels like SoulJazz re-issuing its obvious influences with A Certain Ratio and the bands on the New York Noise comp, a cut on here will leave you speechless. Medium Medium's "So Hungry, So Angry" has slipped off the radar screen of most. With its disco drums and horns and screeching, anxiety-attacked vocals, it's obvious it was all done better the first time around.

Quantic—Mishaps Happening (Ubiquity/Tru Thoughts) Twenty-four-year old Will Holland started out producing trip-hoppy tracks with elements of jazz, 70s funk, rare groove, Latin boogaloo, dub and hiphop on his first two full-lengths, The 5th Exotic and Apricot Morning. What separates these recordings from most of the disposable downtempo on labels like Ninja Tune and Mo' Wax is Holland's live instrumentation. He plays guitar, bass and drums; his sister Lucy provides horns.

Mishaps Happening is Holland's most cohesive and accessible album, tightly stringing together all his influences of modern funk to create colorful and fun tracks. Besides his standout playing and writing, Holland, like all prodigious crate-diggers, brings out obscure r&b vocalists like Spanky Wilson to sing over his beats. Her vocals on tracks like "Don't Joke with a Hungry Man" and "When You're Through" add a dirty grizzle over Holland's sweeping string arrangements and tight 4/4 funk drumming. o