"I've got to be honest, I'm not really liking it. Could you have any more guest spots on there? I mean, c'mon ..." says an unidentified assailant during "Illiterate Interlude," a brief skit that references Prefuse 73's 2005 release, Surrounded By Silence. Acknowledging the mixed reaction to that album is a brave move by mastermind Scott Herren, as the collaboration-heavy mix seemed like more of an attempt to sidestep the challenge of following up his universally lauded glitch-hop masterpiece One Word Extinguisher than it was an attempt to confirm the genius of his vision.

Security Screenings, then, sounds more like the album meant to follow up One Word, with Herren returning to the ambitious blend of glitches, samples and breakbeats that's made him one of the most inventive producers of his generation. Following up that album is no easier now, however.

Moodier and less accessible than his previous efforts, here Herren isn't quite as forceful in his beat making and texture shifting as he has been in the past. Only the swirling patchwork of horns and vocal snippets in "No Origin" and the mutating funk-flute sample of "One Star and Three Stripes" have the visceral punch of his most immediate tracks, leaving the majority of the tracks to depend on his dazzling production skills. To that end, his complex sonic layers are still rich with ornate detail, from the snaking bass line of "When the Grip Lets You Go" and the serenely oscillating synth tones, squishy beats and handclaps of "Mud in Your Mouth." But even as the same eye for intricacy and ear for luminescent textures remain, the tracks often lack the energy of his best work. With a particularly leaden first half, the album feels unnecessarily stacked toward the end.

Herren still manages to squeeze in a few collaborations, working with Four Tet's Kieran Hebden on the playfully sparkling synths, squelchy feedback and static of "Creating Cyclical Headaches," and using the cyclical harmonies of TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe for the too short "We Leave You in a Cloud of Thick Smoke and Sleep Outro." Still, the underemphasized contributions almost seem to be a self-conscious response to the criticism that he was using too many guest emcees and vocalists on his last release, and the album suffers from too much sonic uniformity as a result.

Even so, Herren remains a first-rate composer and the complexity and depth of his cut-and-splice approach remains impressive, if not quite so engaging as on his best work. For the first time, though, Herren seems to be playing it safe, choosing the comfort of an admittedly brilliant holding pattern over the unsure footing of an evolutionary step.

-Matt Fink

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