Cubik & Origami are a duo of musician/djs that sing and play drums, keyboards, guitar, bass and trumpet. Their eponymous debut cd weaves funk, jazz and IDM together to addictive, hip-shaking effect.

Like a mashup of Madlib and Medeski, Martin & Wood, Cubik & Origami's music could certainly be made up of crusty samples pulled from the rare vinyl rack of your local cooler-than-thou record store, but is in fact totally original music culled from hours of inspired live jams and massaged microscopically in the studio into a thing of nuanced, flawed beauty.

Downtempo music soothes, but can be too sleepy and take too few risks. IDM can be inspiringly cutting-edge, but can be unaccessably cold. Funk and jazz done well can move the soul, but done badly can reek of schmaltz. This record spins the best of all of these elements into something singular, really in a field all its own. Give it a listen, and you may find it gracing your playlists on into the future.

Lovers of Kruder and Dorfmeister, Thievery Corporation, golden-era De La Soul and Tribe and artists on labels like Warp and Domino will find a wealth of songs to live by here. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.