One of the best turntablist debuts on record (or CD for that matter),
Man or Myth? references dozens of groove classics -- from
Zapp to
Public Enemy to
Coldcut to
the Steve Miller Band to
Mantronix -- but cross-cuts through them with such speed and accuracy that
Faust remains the focus throughout. While too many turntablists use their albums more for scratching workouts,
Faust lets the beats speak for themselves, working in short bursts of scratching only occasionally. Sequenced as one track (although it lists 27 on the back cover),
Man or Myth? is an essential piece of the instrumental hip-hop puzzle. DJs Shotgun, Craze and
Shortee -- from
Faust's Third World Citizens collective -- feature on a couple of tracks. ~ John Bush