James Bradell, aka Funki Porcini, aka God Allfreakingmighty, deserves more recognition from music fans. And this is regardless of how much recognition he's currently getting. I'm only a fairly recent convert to Ninja Tune Records, but believe you me, I am converted so thoroughly that {insert your Higher Power of choice here} is very likely to condemn me to an afterlife of torment. Oh well, it's been fully worth that risk.

Anyway, Mr. Bradell deserves a huge amount of the credit for my conversion, and that of many of my friends. I should emphasize that point a little bit. The greatest thing about "The Ultimately Empty Million Pounds" is that this album will satisfy the tastes of a wide range of audiences. You like jazz? You'll get plenty of jazz. Are you an underground hiphop head? There's a little something for ya here. Drum-n-bass? One song will quite possibly kill you with its greatness. Do you dig funky organ tunes that are groovier than the best Goodyear tires? Set your ears to "hell yeah".

Whoops. Ah, you reggae diehards might be disappointed. You might be. Although I still kind of doubt it, since I rocked this joint FOR a dred-head over the weekend, and the only response was a huge smile that I don't think was solely because of the lumpy cigarette in his hand. And there's no lyrics. I guess for some, that could prove to be a little disappointing. But really, this album is too undeniably groovy for anyone to dislike on any reasonable level.

First off, when the Funki One wants to jam in the grand big-beat fashion of Prodigy or Fatboy Slim, he does so in a way that'd make those pretenders to the throne weep in shame. You can check out the decent video for the superb tune "Rockit Soul" on Ninja Tune's official website if you want to check out the 'hype' extreme of his musical spectrum, as this is the most raucous of the songs. (That is http://www.ninjatune.net for the initiated.) On the one hand, you're tempted to accuse the song of repeating that one drum riff waaaaaay too often, but personally I hardly even notice it underneath the wild sequencer squeals and spooky synths. And that bass line - I can't help but think that "Rockit Soul" is what most 50s and 60s rock acts would have created had they dabbled in drum-n-bass music. I haven't heard one person say anything bad about this tune, and I'm including people who never agree with me on anything music-related. If you like The Propellerheads as much as I do, prepare to like someone else even more, because Funki Porcini does their sound even better.

Bradell is also funny. Damn funny. Some of his earlier songs, which I think are only found on albums that I have frantically placed orders for in the past several weeks, do a flawless job of using samples to greatly humorous effect, much like Meat Beat Manifesto or EBN. Well, that is the one real downside of "The Ulimately Empty Million Pounds" - the only true dose of humor found here is in the jewel case. OK, that is, aside from the almost out-of-place sample from an episode from The Price Is Right. ("Wheeeeeeeere is the next item up for bids, please?" "Well, it's over here, Bob, on the t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-urntable...")

However, his sampling skills are still put to great use in tunes like "Reboot" and "123, 3, 4". "Reboot" borrows heavily from what sounds like an instructional tape for people learning how to play the drums, and as such it is comprised almost solely of great drum riffs that get played and combined in various fashions. (It also starts off with the instructor simply muttering "the BASS... BASS... drum... drum... drum... the BASS... BASS... drum... drum... drum..." Take that as a sort of a prophetic warning for you to TURN DOWN THE VOLUME, as many a woofer in your sound system will be disintegrated otherwise.) Then that very smoothly segues into "123, 3, 4", which employs super-jazzy trumpet and saxophone samples over a killer breakbeat that, in my opinion, has perfectly embodies the entire concept of "breakbeat music". These, too, are songs that everyone - no joke, I can even include the 62-year-old who sits next to me in the office - seems to dig enormously.

And if you're in the mood for more laidback, mellow, dreamy stuff, you'll get more than enough of a fix. The enormous tuba blasts found in "Theme From Sugar Daddy" and funky guitar licks are actually quite soothing, and even after the beat kicks into high gear, it does so in a very smooth fashion that'll leave you perfectly content to just continue sitting there nodding your head uncontrollably. (Although there's no law against getting up and rocking the hell out to it.) "Wilson's Millions" soft harp melodies might seem to contrast against the huge hits that the horns will deliver every once in a while, but the overall effect is still very calming. Tunes like "English Country Music" and "Butler's Groove" are maybe a bit strange, since the 'drummer' seems to want to go for a little bit of a swing sound, and everyone else in 'the band' (keep in mind, the band is mostly a keyboard and a turntable or two) is mixing ambient sounds with quiet jazzy stuff, but the combo works better than you might expect.

For me, the album veers a little bit too much into calm-tastic territory at the very end. "Tiers Of Joy" and "River" are not really bad songs by any means, but they're very underwhelming after the incredible trip that the first twelve tunes provide. But what the heck, I suppose that they only further expand this album's already ridiculously large boundaries. Insomniacs should be very pleased with them.

But before I come up with some stupid statement like "this album does many things but doesn't do any of them truly well", let me sum up "The Ultimately Empty Million Pounds" like this: it does many things, but above all else it GROOVES well. If you're not convinced yet, then I guess the usual advice of "check out the samples from cdnow.com" might work, although they really don't do a great job of conveying the album in its entirety to you, particularly thanks to their terrible "123, 3, 4" sample. And now I have another bad thing to say about this album: I have no idea how to end my review of it, because no matter what I come up with, I feel like I'm doing Funki Porcini a disservice. Just buy the thing already.

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: At Work