Michael Donaldson (aka Q-Burns Abstract Message) has probably never been accused of keeping his metaphors secret. His name is a play on a term for what happens when a needle wears out a record (a cue burn) combined with Donaldson's philosophy that music is, ironically, an "abstract message." His exceptional collection of club singles was released earlier this year under the title Oeuvre. This album's title, on the other hand, is an Eastern saying meaning everything has its place. That's not abstract-- it's truth in advertising.

The Orlando DJ who's a mainstay of the Florida trance and breakbeat scenes has become known for a certain accessible edge, yet Feng Shui takes a step back and finds the melodies. Rather than focusing on beats for beats' sake or mind- numbingly catchy loops, Donaldson bestows a velvet touch and creates the aural equivalent of watercolors: the edges are dulled and everything bleeds together, but as a whole piece, it's beautiful.

The title track unsurprisingly gets to the heart of the concept as the breaks, skat singing, and sundry samples are diced into an amalgamation so disparate it comes full circle to seamlessness. Yet "Kinda Picky's" airtight hooks make "Feng Shui" sound sloppy by comparison. Even though the lyrics are juvenile, Lisa Bridgeforth's sultry soul combined with the subtlest of breaks and feathery samples is possibly the best guilty pleasure song of the year. Whether you're male or female, black or white, punk or club kid, you'll find yourself lipping the words "I need a real man" as Bridgeforth croons them.

Some might see Donaldson's accessibility as pandering, but it's actually just the opposite. Feng Shui is a creatively mid-tempo wallpaper disc that doesn't fit the mood you're in-- it makes you fit its mood. It seems that in the end it's not the music to which the saying Feng Shui applies, but in fact the person who is listening.

-Shan Fowler