Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

There are producers, mixers, DJs, all over the diddle-damn place. I can't keep up with it. Can anybody keep up with it? My 23 year old son has people handing him CDs they made when he's riding the bus. I mean, it's all over the place. And the funny thing is, a lot of it is pretty good. So the bar is raised. If it's going to attract attention, it's gotta be great. Dial M is great.

Dial M is a musician, producer and performance artist who has been around awhile now. He actually started putting out his own stuff in the late 1980s. His new project, a self-released thing called CLOSE YOUR EYES, is an intriguing, hypnotic, and haunting piece of work that combines elements of rock, hip-hop and gospel music to maximum effect.

You're not gonna nod off in the middle of this bad boy. On "SoulGroove," Dial M takes a simple sample like the phrase "Save my soul" and loop it over funky organ and vibes with a smart rhythm track underneath and make it wear a groove into your head. He pulls a similar trick on "Close Your Eyes," which contains the haunting refrain "I have prayed all my life/and nothing is changing" alternating with the erotic (and in this context, quasi-profane) line "Lick your love." Dial M along the way doesn't load the mix up, but you're not going to find it wanting; there's a lot going on here. Even the seventh and eighth time through you'll pick up new things. His spiritual theme, repeated throughout the CD, is ultimately haunting. "The single most powerful thing/is forgiveness," he sets forth in a track of the same name. Maybe so. Or maybe not. But he'll get you thinking.

While the samples may be simple, this is anything but dumbed-down music. Dial M, based on CLOSE YOUR EYES, has the capability of shouldering to the front of the dance/techno genre and staying for as long he desires. Play this one long, loud and repeatedly. Your grandchildren may one day listen to church music that sounds like this.