In Brief

The U.K.’s Chemical Brothers may be the rulers of the rock-infected “break-beat” sound, but the cutting edge of this genre is the West Coast, where acts such as Hardkiss, Metro L.A. and Cirrus play underground desert raves and produce inspirational, hard-grinding work. Cirrus emerges from this scene with a surprisingly well-rounded rocker, best described by its refrain, “Give us a break.” Indeed.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four stars (excellent).

Hear the Music

* Excerpts from these albums and other recent pop music releases are available on The Times’ World Wide Web site. Point your browser to: http://mediakit.nohib.com/soundclips