Even the staunchest supporters of electronica would have a hard time proclaiming it the hottest and heaviest of genres. Its very coolness -- the rigidity of its rhythms, the paucity of human voices -- is part of its allure. Now comes the electronica offshoot two-step, which seeks to change that perception in ways that earlier, vocal swabbed derivatives like jungle and house never quite did.
Composed of two British DJ producers, Pete Devereux and Mark Hill, the two-step group Artful Dodger isn't a band in the traditional rock sense. Even so, It's All About the Stragglers (to be released in the States next month, but currently available as a British import) is surprisingly conventional. Using live singers instead of samples, Artful Dodger are song and dance men, with an emphasis on song. ''Think About Me,'' featuring vocalist Michelle Escoffery, is such straight ahead R&B that it could be a Destiny's Child experiment in electronica.
Here and there, Devereux and Hill perk up the tracks with jittery flourishes, like the computer whirs on ''Re-Rewind,'' which features British two-step poster boy Craig David name checking himself over a delicious poppin' popcorn beat. On that and other cuts, Stragglers is lighter and softer than much American R&B, and poptronica tracks like ''Please Don't Turn Me On'' and ''Twentyfourseven'' inject sexual tension into a genre that's long been celibate.
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