By Leah Selvidge

OCTOBER 27, 1997:  Most electronic artists sit squarely in specific genres: techno, house, drum and bass, trip-hop, dub, illbient, trance, blah, blah, blah. It's rare, though, that any one particular group can successfully meld all of those styles well, much less coherently. It usually comes off sounding contrived or over the top, sometimes downright uncomfortable. But Hanuman Care Kit, a French-English duo best described as sonic alchemists of all of the above, succeed at both pulling it together and doing it well. Hanuman's debut release, Visited, resonates with deep sonic tones and skewed overdubbed vocals. The emphasis is on songwriting as well as the music with enough beats to maintain the motion. "Pectoral Dub" and "Atop the Mush" are beautifully smoky dub-fests well suited to headphone auditioning (the only place for dub!). "Jezebella" is a somnambulant, smooth-as-silk treat, while "Somebeleev" stands strong as the remix candidate with a 12-inch available from DJ Armagedion of Massive Attack, who appears to be heavily influential throughout the album. Complex and textural, Hanuman Care Kit is more curious and interesting than their compatriots, masked disco revivalists, Daft Punk. Head music in the truest sense, Visited convinces me that something much better than Jerry Lewis re-runs is entertaining the French.

3 Stars -- Leah Selvidge

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