MARBECKS RARE: Connected

CONNECTED is the third release from the Stereo MC's, a British trio of remixers who ferment their unique blend of rap, R&B and dance music with a healthy blend of techno, dub and jazz, putting them in the vanguard of the music's new wave along with such irrefutably hip hoppers as Digable Planets.

Augmented by the vocal trio of Cath Coffey, Verona Davis and Andrea Groves, CONNECTED is a brave new vision of dance music, as illustrated by the sultry title track, with its swampy rhythmic underpinning, '60s soul jazz punctuations, beefy bass line and its incantory chants, urging on the dancers to greater self-expression, personal responsibility and intellectual curiosity.