The Illegal Art imprint has always celebrated judicious use of the sample, so Junk Culture’s soundscrap beats fit in that regard. But while labelmate Girl Talk flaunts well known sources in uncomfortably terrific contexts, this project from Portland resident Deepak Mantena resurrects bits of noise captured on a hand recorder for a glitchier and less straight ahead take on things.

A lighting paced nine songs in 19 minutes, Mantena’s first offering is a blast to the headphones that brings to mind the off-kilter breaks of Flying Lotus and the unkempt  energy of Prefuse 73’s early achievements. Mantena’s chop-cut arrangements meld spliced voices, out of place keys and plenty of close-cropped drums to form polyrhythmic bursts of sound and action.

With a tethered airiness “For Elise” provides some breathing room ahead of standout “That’s Not Me” where Mantena keeps space in his progressions and teases in ever more enticing vocal samples over the springy break until finally unleashing a full sample that could have emerged straight from Madlib’s Bomb Shelter. With such impressive emotion built from the blemishes on his source sounds, the name Junk Culture seems especially proper.

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