Twenty-two year old Joshua Ralph graduated from film school, then created a studio in an abandoned New York City silent movie theater and spent a year making a record. What happened next is odd at best. Interspersed between moments of dance hall genius are trips into the purely bizarre that only comes from New York. Influenced by film soundtracks, dub, electronica, Ralph admittedly knew nothing about the process of creating music when he went into the studio. In places, it serves him well, while in others, the results are not as promising.

The opening track, "Baby," shows a firm grasp of dance floor rhythms and house-party sounds, while "Fire It Up" recalls funk and soul influences as diverse as Car Wash and The Time, throwing in a electric violin solo for some spice (and no, with a listen or two, it really isn't all that farfetched of a combination). "Untitled 17" is an orchestrated instrumental featuring the talents of the New York Film Harmonic (yes, the Film Harmonic) and is definitely worth a listen. I do, however, wonder if most of what makes the track great is the fact that trained musicians got in on the act. Truthfully, a lot of this loses me. I found most of the tracks hard to get into, and it's not because it's all that complicated of a sound structure. I feel as if there's a total riot going on and not even the artist has a plan for where to put everything. I'm all for diversity, but disassociated genres and sounds put together without any follow-through aren't fun or interesting to listen to.

By the looks of his jacket design, with its blurry New York cityscapes and tableaux of Ralph in retro-cowboy garb among seedy, nameless landmarks and in the expanse of abandoned space that is his studio, it's safe to gather that he's got a cinematic plan for what he has created here. I haven't seen it, which is probably what is holding me back from fully understanding what's in Ralph's head. Wunderkind, maybe, but a record is a one-dimensional object that it takes a lot of know-how and talent to build into a multi-dimensional masterpiece. This just isn't there. It's got some great grooves on it, but ultimately, I think this guy's got a lot to learn and I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes with this in the future, if it has one.