New music on the shelves

McClatchy Newspapers • Published July 10, 2008

Although one could listen to it as name-that-tune pop quiz, its seamless quick-cut artistry never seemed academic, ironic or contrived; instead, it aimed for maximum pleasure.

Surprisingly, “Feed The Animals” is even giddier. Gillis takes the history of Top 40 pop as his purview, from “96 Tears” and “Jessie’s Girl” to “In a Big Country” and “Whoomp! (There It Is)” to “Crank That (Soulja Boy)” and “Lollipop.”

Made available as a Radiohead-like name-your-price download via www.illegalart.net almost immediately after it was completed (and then quickly dissected sample-by-sample on Wikipedia), “Feed The Animals” is a dizzy, exhausting and exuberant tour de force.

RZA AS BOBBY DIGITAL “Digi Snaks” (Koch, ***1/2)

RZA makes soundtracks for Quentin Tarentino and Jim Jarmusch, creates online games (WuChess), and produces palcollaborators in the Wu Tang Clan. But in between all that, RZA has a solo career that he runs in the thug-superhero mode of “Bobby Digital.”

With the Wu’s most recent record 8 Diagrams sounding only so-so, it’s time for the masked, swashbuckling pimp/ rapper to save the day. Rather than rescue it through hip-hop, Digi’s power comes from the thrilling blaxploitative swirl that RZA gave “Kill Bill.”

RZA’s fresh cinematic ambience allows him open space in which to rhyme curtly. “Creep” and “You Can’t Stop Me Now” are spookily soulful disco-funk thumpers whose mysteries you can’t quite figure out at first.

Then you notice the Billie Holiday-like voice of Thea van Seijen, with her creaking verses on looming cuts such as “Good Night,” and consider her contributions to the darkly atmospheric Massive Attack.

Aha! RZA’s take on that British trip-hop outfit’s electro-dub vibe gives everything from the regal jazz of “Drama” to the tensely teasing “Try Ya Ya Ya” a scary, lovelier atmosphere than anything RZA has recorded previously.

VANESSA HUDGENS “Identified” (Hollywood, *** 1/2)

There’s more to this Disney ingenue of “High School Musical” fame than meets the eye.