J Boogie has been getting the party started in the Bay Area for nearly twenty years, first as host of the show “Beatsauce” on KUSF, then as a deejay and producer who has toured the world and released a few albums. On his latest album, he features the live band he put together for 2008’s Soul Boogie, Dubtronic Science. Along with his regular musicians, there are guests on nearly every track, with artists such as Lateef the Truth Speaker and MC Zulu making appearances.

Undercover plays more like two EPs combined than one cohesive album. There’s a pretty distinct stylistic split between the first half and the second half of the album. The first half is all straight ahead dance music, with a pulsing beat that keeps pushing the music forward. The Mamaz start the album off, giving a post-punk/disco-funk edge to track. However, having listened to some other tracks that they’ve done, I’m disappointed that The Mamaz weren’t given more of a chance to shine as lyricists, because there’s some real talent there. The weakest part of the first half of the record comes from Lateef, which once again makes me wonder if someone kidnapped everybody from Quannum and replaced them with imposters that are set out to destroy their reputation. I just have a hard time believing the guy who dropped Latyrx is now rhyming things like, “There’s a party on the roof/ Don’t look now/ I think it’s on fire/ Yes it’s on fire” and “Where’d the time go/ Can we tango?/ Can we do it at a horizontal angle?/ Choke it out - no need to strangle/ We can bang bang bang ‘till they jangle - earrings, that is.” Seriously? Aside from having a name I don’t care for, Pimps of Joytime bring a fun Kool and the Gang vibe to their track that closes out the first section.

If these first four tracks were released on their own, I’d enjoy it, but they wouldn’t stand out. Fortunately, the second half of the record gets much more interesting, as Boogie starts to incorporate a more international flavor to his sound. This starts with the Bang Data coming in and laying down some Cumbia-inspired hip hop with “El Ritmo.” My favorite track on the album is “Blue Mountain Dub,” which features Jazz Mafia, and as you might have inferred from the title, explores reggae and dub. The track is beautiful and melodic and peaceful. “Magik” with Aima the Dreamer and Rashaan Ahmad isn’t bad, but doesn’t really fit stuck in between dub and Afro-jazz, as it works to combine dance/R&B of the early ‘90s with modern British electronic music. I don’t love the song, but it definitely would have benefited from better placement on the album. “No Freedom” does a great job of recreating Nigerian jazz-funk of the ‘70s with MC Zulu and Afrolicious, with lyrics about freedom of speech. “Space and Time” is a sexy slow jam, but it goes on way too long, and is also an odd choice to end the album on, as it works against all the energy and party vibes that have been cultivated over the course of the record.

Undercover has problems, as I think it could have stood to benefit from losing a couple tracks and could have been sequenced better. That said, there is still plenty to enjoy about this album.