Hoy Yen Ass/n

Determined to raise his own stakes in the grand ol' game of funk-whist, Tommy boy has brought San Francisco's DJ Gadget and a crate of his rarest cuts to the table and comes up smelling of aces.

A deft translation of 'hoy yen ass'n' is someone else's job, but a roughly phonetic anglicism of 'haul yo' ass' will do fine here - Gadget and Guerrero have leaned heavily on the low end for maximum gritty hip-hop thrills. '1 Ton Souperman', in common with many of the tracks here, splices in the background sounds of a good party in full swing, so rest assured that any gathering will garner instant ambience with this on the PA. Come to that, 'Out The Village' brings a chorus of your entirely off-beat pissed mates into the mix, so you really don't need to invite anyone

Indeed, Hoy Yen Ass'n has the feel of a drunken collaboration that chance and serendipity decreed would be a joy to listen to - Gadget's scratches and understated, rough-edged production play perfectly off Guerrero's quietly insistent guitar lines.

Tracks like 'Deep Sleep' and '2 Days Later' call to mind UNKLE's drowsy brand of instrumental hip-hop, and 'Comme Disait Papi' laces that mix with some fine mogadon gallic MC'ing courtesy of Selavie. 'Cold' stands out as a piece of piano-led drunken fear that Tom Waits would be glad to call his own.

In a world where all the difficult beats have been rounded off for easy consumption, it's refreshing to hear a messy, beautiful clutch of songs like these. Hoy Yen Ass'n, like the man said.