Pitchfork

When jungle pioneer Justice tells us he's heard the future, we ought to pay attention. And on the evidence of Hears to the Future, we are now living in a post-jungle world. Jungle went supernova and the expelled matter has traveled far and wide. Timberland's much-ripped trademark sound is indebted to drum-n-bass, as is speed garage and the twisted, winding sounds of the UK garage underground.

Of course, the evidence of jungle's collapse was always there for all to see: the 746 reissues from Bukem's Logical Progression label, the K-tel compilations. Hydrogen Dukebox even released the Justice career-retrospective The Greatest Hit. The graffiti tag of Hears to the Future on this record's cover screams hip-hop (and in particular Mo'Wax's Headz compilations) rather than the amphetamine or ganja signifiers usually associated with jungle covers.

On the opener, "Two Thousand Seconds," Justice rolls out a standard downtempo hip-hop groove before elevating it with shards of sound so shiny and beautifully metallic they recall Eno's Shutov Assembly. Justice then drops the sound of a lone Bedouin lamenting in song the desert's lack of water and his perpetual wandering. The track has the global reach of Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack and could easily accompany a Tyrell Corporation hip-hop slam.

Justice's proclivity for Levantine melodies surfaces again on "Whack MC's." And while his guest rapper, Danoyd, would not challenge Juvenile's or Roots Manuva's originality, Justice saturates the track with a tense, rough rinsin' that's all the more prevalent when the instrumental version ends the EP.

Justice connects with the current fascination for electro (stand up, Sven Väth and Anthony Rother) on the outstanding "Cycle II" and "Beat Drop." Here, Justice displays his skills by not weakly emulating "Scorpio" or "Clear;" rather, he takes Cybotron's essence and fashions a new style of electro. Of course, these tracks will annoy purists (the hi-hats are more speed garagy than Furious Five), but Justice comes from the future and doesn't dwell in the past.

"Monk Rock" returns to atmospherics to beat down Mix Master Morris at his own chilled head- bobbing game. The monks of the title sound more like devotees of Tricky than Tertullian, but hey, that could be the future of patristic scholarship for all I know! If this exemplary EP has a weakness, it's that Hears to the Future is too short. Its eight tracks are over in less than 40 minutes. Justice is one of the few ex-junglists I want to hear a full disc of. Perhaps he's trying to warn us. Maybe in the future our attention spans are even smaller than today. Or-- horrible thought-- the future itself is all too brief.