by John Bush
Spring Heel Jack's first album released in America continues the duo's dense, dub-inspired take on jungle. The use of high-pitched, polished strings and clean breakbeats makes 68 Million Shades a consistently sound listen, but the 75-minute album begins to drag nearly halfway through, when most of the rhythms have already been duplicated on several songs throughout. When Spring Heel Jack's formula works, on &Midwest& and &Pan,& the sound is great; with a running time cut in half, though, 68 Million Shades would be twice as good.