Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines

Part of a double feature with Quazarz: Born on a Gangster Star, Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines is a dreamy, defiantly avant-garde take on the state of hip-hop—think Frank Zappa raised on Kool Keith. Like its companion, Jealous Machines stretches the group’s mellow, dislocated sound in ambitious new directions, from the sun-dazed funk of “Love in the Time of Kanye” to the murky “Late Night Phone Calls,” which sounds like deconstructed quiet storm. “He’s focused on the blurry blur/Your favorite rapper,” Ishmael Butler deadpans on “30 Clip Extension.” “He’s feeling numb dressed dapper dumb/Your favorite rapper.”