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Title: Forget the naysayers; you can dance to this
Review: Jack Dangers, aka Meat Beat Manifesto, serves up 15 mixed tracks on this release. In a way, one could argue that MBM, more than just about anyone, paved the way for a generation of electro-breakbeat with the single song "Helter Skelter." That said, this disc lacks much of the trademark noisy bluster of some MBM releases - not entirely a bad thing - but still leaves the foot tapping. Parts of the non-stop mix tend to drag a bit, but on the whole I found the combination of crisp breakbeats, bongos and weird vocal samples to be quite engaging. More importantly, one can hear Dangers' signature on the work. In a genre of music that is often cookie-cutter and/or anonymous in its presentation, 'Hello Friends' reminds you that, at its best, electronic music has a detectable heartbeat underneath the cold machinery, particularly in the hands of a mixmaster like Jack Dangers.
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