Reviews of releases by DJ Keoki, Montgomery Gentry and more.(The Dallas Morning News)

DJ KEOKI "Jealousy" (Moonshine) Grade: A

When you hear phrases like "techno," "electronica" and "dance music," you probably think of pounding beats and weird sound effects. Just as, in a previous generation, people heard phrases like "rock `n' roll" and "rhythm and blues" and thought of loud guitars and lewd lyrics.

Whatever you want to call it, electronic dance music has already been mainstreamed _ in our hypercommercialized times, it's the soundtrack to nearly every new car commercial and action movie. But no amount of co-opting can negate the music's revolutionary power. And for proof of that, just listen to "Jealousy," the new album from DJ Keoki.

What you will hear is the sound of the future. There are plenty of pounding beats and weird sound effects, but there is also everything that makes pop music pop _ snippets of irresistible melody, catchy lyrics. There are also a lot of things that, once upon a time, you would have heard only in the most experimental of avant-garde music _ loops of sound, buzzing voices. And it is all spun together in a sophisticated swirl that transforms music into a multisensory experience. Listening to a song like the title track or "Rush" is like stepping into a virtual funhouse; you don't just hear this music. You feel it and see it; you practically taste and smell it.

The self-proclaimed superstar makes dance music, so the beats are plentiful and booming. But Keoki uses beats like brushstrokes, so the listener is never quite sure what the DJ is going to do next or exactly what kind of soundscape he is painting. Those who want to see what tomorrow is going to sound like need only listen to "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." A spoken-word poem delivered from within lushly detailed atmosphere, this is music you don't so much listen to as move through.

Be sure to check out the album's closer, Keoki's reinvention of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax." He transforms the `80s disco standard into a drum-and-bass maelstrom _ the 20th century never sounded so long-gone and far away.

_Tom Maurstad