Tommy Yamaha and Martin Kaiser first joined forces in 1990 in Nuremberg, where they quickly gained a solid reputation as DJs and purveyors of all-around quirky breakbeat and downtempo electronica. On Playtime, their third full-length album, the overarching influence is reggae with a healthy dollop of hip-hop thrown into the mix as well. Not every track is perfect — Playtime opens awkwardly with the funky but strangely monotonous “Playtime Theme,” and “It’s on U” features unexceptional vocals by one Eddie Greene — but most of them come very close. The highlights are those songs that feature MC Blaze, a young female rapper who is equally at home riding the rhythm old-school style and chatting in a more modern, aggressive vein. Then there’s the pumping mid-tempo strut of “Outer Space,” which showcases the smooth vocal talents of Cyrena Dunbar and manages simultaneously to sound spacy, earthy, funky, and soothing. On “Deeper One” the duo delivers a swinging, subtly dubwise instrumental of beguiling complexity. Very, very nice. – Rick Anderson