When someone says "ambient", what do you think of? Slow, ponderous, spacey, 12-minute tracks with endless gentle progressions but no defining beat, perhaps? Me too. Although Loop Guru's Loop Bites Dog possesses some of the best elements of ambient, it also dispenses with the directionless tendency for navel-gazing that can be so frustrating if you haven't just dropped a tab, eaten a psylocybe butt-sandwich, or ingested any other psychedelic to enhance the experience.

Loop Bites Dog begins on a decidedly techno note, plenty of throb driving the chants, otherwordly samples and offbeat instruments into the shape of a danceable beat. Then the ambient begins with "Out Here," a twangly little sample stew of lyrics, bells, what sounds to be a sitar, rainforest noises, and a recurring, unintelligible lyric loop. Pass the acid, please. However, just when you're ready to give up (the track's almost seven minutes), "Karma Magra" begins, adding some deliciously moderate Drum-n-Bass to the mix for another lesson in sound. And, my kudos to the Gurus because the trend continues throughout the rest of the album -- well-balanced and appropriate beats combined with exotic and unexpected instruments and samples. It's the kind of record you'd listen to on the drive home from the rave; your ears stinging a bit and in need of something mellower. Stay between the lines and let the tribe creep into yer brain.

-James P. Wisdom