Mr. Scruff

Mr. Scruff's umpteenth album offers plenty that will be familiar to fans: lively jazz drumming, big splashes of Hammond and off-the-cuff fusions of styles like salsa and doo-wop. But Ninja Tuna also ventures into new terrain: "Nice Up the Function," featuring Roots Manuva, looks to dancehall reggae for inspiration, and "Bang the Floor" renders hip-hop as chopped, screwed and disembowled, trailing floppy coils of bass in its wake; "Kalimba" takes it back to Africa with loping polyrhythms and overdriven Rhodes, while "Stockport Carnival" soothes a hyperventilating Brazilian groove.