I didn't want to go to bed alone that night, so I asked her to join me. She mumbled something, and it was then that I knew I should have hit on her more when she was awake. Drat. My kingdom for a hippie chick. Sure, my kingdom consists of a bunch of scratched-up CDs, a stained sock and my trusty Graffix bong, but don't I deserve a hippie chick, too? Everybody got one! I want one too!

I went to bed with shame, intoxication and a half- assed proclamation of "never again" as my bedfellows that night. It wasn't the first time and surely won't be the last. What better than Snooze to drift me off into sleep? It's karma, dude! Karma...

Sleep wasn't so easily coming, however. Perhaps it was destiny or the Long Island Ice Teas, but I got a good chance to listen to Snooze and report back to you. Are you glad? I hope so!

Time for "Rhapsody in Techno." As a former rocker, I loathed the greasy synthetic noises characteristic of techno. I wanted pomp, circumstance and big hair. Pour some sugar on me, baby! Yet, the more drugs I did, the more I liked that groovy subset of techno we like to call "trip-hop." Wait one minute, my friend! I didn't say it was trip-hop yet! Put those checkbooks away! There's more! Besides the delicious grooves that might be at home on a mix with Laika or Hooverphonic, there's electronica, too! What the hell that means I'll never understand, but my schwantz-o-meter tells me no lies. The Man in the Shadow delivers a sound befitting its title, with lots of haunting, lazy beats juiced heavily for texture, bumping slowly between almost- dance and almost- ambient. Still vague? Hey, it's the nature of the beast, dude!

So there I was, lying in my waterbed, wishing her warm, unshowered, hairy body was cuddled next to mine, my sourness only deadened by the pleasant cycles that Snooze was turning in my head. I couldn't sleep, and between taking notes for this review I gave myself dutch ovens. Good clean scatological fun for the everyday reviewer, hey? I kept thinking that it sounded like some of the better hip-hop running around nowadays, but without the rapper. Yeah, hip-hop without the rapper, just like me without the hippie. It's minimal and economical, samples sliding in and out of the grooves like jelly. There's a guitar riff here, some muted dialog there, some vocals throughout and few but well- placed moments of dissonance. I'm not going to tell you it's sonic stew, that cliche's too overused.

You might've guessed I fell asleep after a while, listening. You'd be wrong, my friend! I'm still amped-up on jugooberries and still listening to Snooze, and it's been three days! It's gotten me through it, man! It's like that time I was driving that stolen car cross- country, and I picked up that hitchhiker in Big Tuna. Why you shoulda seen...

-James P. Wisdom