Although Lucas Macfadden a.k.a. Cut Chemist may not be a household DJ name like DJ Shadow and Fatboy Slim, he's extremely respected by his peers in and the fans of the underground Hip-Hop community. Cut Chemist first came into prominence with his two extremely limited collaborations with DJ Shadow called Brainfreeze and Product Placement. These collaborations were so limited in fact, that even bootleg copies will run you as high as 50-100 bucks a piece in some areas (I got the originals under lock and key bitches!). What Cut Chemist has lately been known for however is being one of the two DJ's featured in the Hip-Hop group Jurassic 5 (along with the equally great DJ Nu-Mark). Anyone who has ever seen Jurassic 5 live knows that the best part of going to their live shows isn't the MC's, but the jaw-dropping DJ battle off between Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark in the middle of the performance.

Earlier in the year, I had heard that Cut Chemist left Jurassic 5 to begin work on his first official studio full-length release. I was initially bummed until I heard that Jurassic 5 had guest artists on board such as the Dave Matthews Band (YUCK!) for their new album. Now I'm just grateful that Cut Chemist left unscathed before Jurassic 5 began their Black Eyed Peas-ification.

The Audience's Listening is mostly Dance, Spoken-Word and only a little bit Hip-Hop driven; a far cry from most of the other work he's done, but it works surprisingly well. Album openers "Motivational Speaker" and "(My 1st) Big Break" are exercises in Chemist just showing you how well he can splice together pieces of Spoken-Word and make it seem completely fluid. "The Garden" is somewhat reminiscent of something Big Beat like Fatboy Slim, but Chemist also throws in some Savath & Savalas style vocals that ups the coolness factor a notch. Surprisingly it's the Hip-Hop factor of this album that I don't care for much. The big centerpiece of the album, "Storm" which features Edan and Mr. Lif on vocals (two truly remarkable MC's in their own right) feels like nothing more than a third rate Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five rip off. The Audience's Listening doesn't fully grasp the complete genius that is Cut Chemist, but for the most part it is one hell of a fun listen.