Scattered through the 28 tracks that make up DJ Krush's third album, Milight, are spoken vox-pops about the future, such as this, "A lot of headz are trying ... You know, it almost seems like taxis in New York trying to get to a red light, everyone's trying to be creative at the same time, it can be a little confusing...." Well, ain't that the truth.

As cheaper technology renders musicmaking ever easier, as gangsta hip-hop continues to play itself out by way of either the bank or the morgue, and as a new generation of "turntablists" invents techniques and fusions seemingly every week, it feels like these are some of the most exciting times in memory. DJ Krush is a 35-year-old Japanese native brought up on the original American hop-hop culture (which included breakdancing and graffiti as prominently as rapping).

Milight features guest rappers verbalizing in both English and Japanese, eschews the usual between-song "shout-outs" for philosophical predictions, is largely dominated by atmospheric ambient music over a low-tempo breakbeat, and closes with a cover of John Lennon's "Mind Games" and a magnificent full-on song that would not sound out of place on a Portishead album. Try putting that mixture alongside Dr. Dre and Li'l Kim in your hip-hop collection and seeing how it fits. On the last two cuts, Krush himself takes to the (turn)tables and brings in female vocalists to stellar effect. Japanese jazz singer Eri Ohno gives "Mind Games" a Fugees-style treatment, and the finale, "Skin Against Skin," featuring new Mo Wax artist Deborah Anderson, is, while perilously close to Portishead's "Sour Times," quite simply bigger, brighter and more melodic than anything else on the album.

On Milight it seems as though it takes DJ Krush well over an hour to come to the conclusion that we are all suckers for melody. But throughout the time in which he leads up to his stirring finish, he is constantly entertaining and innovative, positioning himself prominently at the vanguard of the new global hip-hop culture.