A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO, while in line at one of the newer venues in town, some friends and I were lamenting the ongoing escalation of cover charges. With the booming economy, inflation was bound to happen around here, and poor slobs like myself are feeling just a little miffed at prices heading toward $10 and up. You'd think Jesus Himself was paying a holy visit to the immaculate turntables. Sure, sure, when you have multiple DJs spinning, everyone needs to get paid, but the quality of some of this stuff is dubious. That same night, I witnessed a horrible spectacle involving an unnamed DJ actually losing his cue in the midst of a rather prosaic set -- dead fucking air. Seventy or so people stopped mid-groove, standing around like the power went off: a tragic, tragic sight.

However, for a clean $5, Skerik, Reggie Watts, DJ Diskye, Davis Martin, and DJ Miss Kick offer for your approval Elemental. Working their own sonic version of the periodic table, Elemental conjure up a kind of on-stage lab experiment that mixes unstable portions of dub, acid, hiphop, triphop, and jazz. Improvised, it can best be summarized as a fucked-up journey through a kaleidoscopic aural spectrum.

DJ Diskye's glib scratchings and samples swirl through the ether over layers of Watt's spooky, synthetic vocals and pumping keyboard loops, while Skerik's irascible sax discharges into the rhythm of Davis Martin's meticulous drumming. The beats come and go and are often dense, hypnotic, ominous, and persuasive. To dance to Elemental is to perform a kind of liberating, imbecilic motion.

Drum and Bass trio SAMO, on the other hand, offer an entirely different direction in live dynamics. John Wicks (drums), Bob Heinemann (bass), and Steve Scalfati (keyboards) approach D&B with a generous nod to R&B. SAMO's grooves border on pure funk, and like Elemental, SAMO throw in tasty space samples for atmospheric tripping. This is fun, tight shit. Just watching these guys get off is entertaining.

Even if you're legs won't move you to express yourself, Elemental and SAMO's warming trend is just the thing to shake off winter melancholia. And it won't cost the shirt off your back.