SOUND CHECK.

Busta Rhymes/``E.L.E.'' (Elektra)

You've got to admire a guy who can duet with Janet Jackson (on the funk-poppy ``What's It Gonna Be'') and then, without missing a beat, team up with Ozzy Osborne for a killer remake of Black Sabbath's ``Iron Man'' (titled ``This Means War''). Yet some of the best moments on Busta Rhymes' third album come after the celebrity guests have gone home and the Brooklyn rapper starts cooking up his own strange brew of sounds, textures and stylistic hybrids. In eerie tracks such as ``Tear Da Roof Off'' and ``Give It to Me Raw,'' Busta and his Flipmode Squad hit upon minimalist hip-hop grooves that Philip Glass would admire. The sound isn't entirely original - Public Enemy's Bomb Squad was doing something similar back in '90 - and some of the rapper's rabid pre-millennium doomsaying gets old in a hurry. Yet when the music is as downright ominous as it is on ``Against All Odds'' and ``What the (Expletive) You Want,'' you find yourself rooting for the apocalypse with the same fervor as Busta. Three stars

- Thor Christensen

Dallas Morning News

Vic Chesnutt/``The Salesman and Bernadette'' (Capricorn)

Chesnutt is not for all tastes, though the rewards are plentiful for the patient type. Backed by a large and varied collective called Lambchop, and featuring the heavenly help of Emmylou Harris on the tender ``Woodrow Wilson,'' Chesnutt makes the most of his verbosity by placing it amid sounds that draw on everything from Farfisa organ to euphonium to vibes to recorder. All of it bolsters the songwriter's grungy Cat Stevens style to tuneful ends, even if it doesn't completely compensate for the album's unevenness. Two and one half stars

- Ben Wener

Orange County Register

RZA/``As Bobby Digital in Stereo'' (Gee Street/V2)

``As Bobby Digital'' doesn't make a whole lot of linear sense. It's a fantastically inventive, sci-fi melange that is about nothing so much as the plain fact that Bobby Digital - also known as RZA, the sonic mastermind who holds the Wu-Tang Clan together - is the baddest mother in this or any other reality. In addition to such RZA trademarks as rough-and-rugged guest-versifying from Inspecta Deck, Method Man and their likes, plus ominously symphonic strings and piano loops, it delivers an experimental spirit that never sacrifices rhythmic power. By now, the Wu empire's ever-expanding omnipresence can feel oppressive - there's an instrumental version of this album due in February, plus another RZA album later in 1999. Also, RZA's mad creativity comes accompanied by an ugly misogyny that peaks on the brutal ``Domestic Violence,'' and the album's relentless musical attack seems designed to pummel the listener into submission. But though ``Bobby Digital'' is never pretty, it's always pretty mind-blowing. Three stars

- Dan DeLuca

Philadelphia Inquirer

Frank Frost/``Deep Blues'' (Evidence)

Veteran singer-harpist-pianist Frank Frost has been long partnered with drummer Sam Carr, either as a duo or in the band the Jelly Roll Kings. Carr lays out for this Frost-led date (although he did drive Frost to the Nashville studio where it was recorded), on which the latter is backed by guitarist Fred James (who also produced the session), bassist Bob Kommersmith and drummer Waldo Latowsky). And while Frost seems comfortable with a set of unchallenging, seat-of-the-pants jams with titles such as ``Pocket Full of Money'' and ``Pocket Full of Shells,'' the music never gets in the pocket the way it does in his recordings with Carr. Three stars

- Terry Lawson

Detroit Free Press 

John Zorn/``Masada: 10'' (DIW)

One of the world's great eclectics, alto saxophonist and composer John Zorn is at his best with Masada, a Jewish roots-meet-Ornette Coleman quartet that features trumpeter Dave Douglas, bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Joey Barron. The 10th in a series, this latest CD is among the finest of the lot. The folk-like compositions, colored by an exotic modalism and odd-metered rhythms, are strikingly direct and beget unusually organic improvisations from the ensemble. There are some squeals and freak-out effects, but what is most impressive about Zorn's quartet is its overall focus, lyricism, honesty and generosity, even when it breathes fire. There's no postmodern irony here, just beautiful music. Four stars

- Mark Stryker

Detroit Free Press

Stereolab/``Aluminum Tunes'' (Drag City)

This British band's fascination with the ``retro moderne'' - '50s lounge records, swinging-'60s easy-listening, Moog demonstration records - has spurred a subculture built around such thrift-store finds. Not content to merely dust off and display these exotic relics, Stereolab enmeshes them in obscure reference points: '70s kraut rock, French pop, Brazilian psychedelia and Sun Ra's space-age jazz. This collection of hard-to-find singles and unreleased material may be a touch esoteric for beginners, but it's essential for the converted. Three and one half stars

- Jonathan Valania

Philadelphia Inquirer

Phish/``The Story of the Ghost'' (Elektra)

The latter-day line on Phish: It was once a heedless jam band, but now the Vermont foursome has seen the light, trading long-winded journeys for compact, disciplined songs in the ever-so-comfortable verse-chorus tradition. This tale of transformation overlooks one thing: Phish has been writing such songs since its 1996 effort ``Billy Breathes,'' a streamlined affair that positioned crystal-clear vocal refrains atop heady, post-fusion grooves. The intermittently inspired ``The Story of the Ghost,'' produced and mixed by Nirvana vet Andy Wallace, continues along a similar path. The songs are short. Most of them revolve around identifiable hooks. The rhythms still have a jazzbo bite - see the roiling, triple-meter ``Limb by Limb'' - but rarely wander into navel-gazing excess. That's part of the problem. In compressing its free-associative tales into more conventional structures, Phish has sacrificed a bit of the grasping grandeur of its early compositions. These days, even the intricate polyrhythmic cruise - the scooting ``Birds of a Feather,'' which approaches the surging intensity of the band's live show - comes with a grabby chorus and the kind of thrill-a-minute arrangement that the old improvisatory Phish never needed. Three stars

- Tom Moon

Philadelphia Inquirer

Everlast/``Whitey Ford Sings the Blues'' (Tommy Boy)

Eric (Everlast) Schrody, who split from ``Jump Around'' nuts House of Pain two years ago, recasts himself in a Spearhead manner on his solo debut. Much of ``Whitey Ford'' - especially the single ``What It's Like,'' which is essentially a rewrite of Spearhead's ``Hole in the Bucket'' - can be heard as off-puttingly preachy. But Everlast keeps the styles shifting so fast you don't notice so much. He moves from folky outspokenness on ``Ends'' to b-boy grooves on ``Tired,'' from positive uplift on ``Praise the Lord'' to Seal-ish acoustic rock on ``Today'' and smoothly funky on ``Death Comes Callin'.'' There is a bit of the Sugar Ray Syndrome here - as in, modern-rock fans fall for the first cut (``What It's Like'') not knowing that what's inside isn't really anything like it. But there's a difference: Everlast's album tracks are actually better than the single. A surprise. Three stars

- Ben Werner

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Photo: no caption (Busta Rhymes)