In January, when Scritti Politti mastermind Green Gartside took the stage at a small club in Brixton, England—the first time he had played live in 26 years—music blogs and the English press, still heady from the reissue of Scritti's earliest bedsit-punk material a year earlier, were set aflame. Tucked into the bottom of The Guardian's online writeup of the gig was a RealAudio stream of "Boom Boom Bap." (The title had a "The" tacked on for its inclusion on Scritti's forthcoming album.) The sonic overload of Scritti's mid-period hits like "Perfect Way" has been left aside; "Boom" is a sparse, drone-driven lament recalling "The 'Sweetest Girl,'" Scritti's yearning bridge between its post-punk and pre-pop eras. Gartside's not-quite-falsetto, sounding as sweet and clear as it did on Scritti's brightest pop moments, pays lyrical tribute to hip-hop (as does the title, which refers to a beat defined by a bass drum and snapping snare) over a crisp, home-recorded beat—and while "home" sounds like it's become a bit more plush than a bedsit, the music coming out of it is no less enrapturing.