Part re-imagined Nonesuch Explorer world music travelogue, part John Cage-ian everything-we-do-is-music audio documentary, part human/computer jam session, part "Rhythms from Around the World" anthropological cavalcade, Chris Brown's 27-track Talking Drum is a challenging reassessment of  "music," "musician," and "listener." Through it all, Brown retains the humanity of his nine-year, cross-cultural music-making by recording the entire CD with binaural microphones worn near each ear. The stunning effect of this simple production decision, as Brown puts it, immerses the listener "in a three-dimensional sound image."

Headphone highlights include a phantasmagoric stroll through a street market in the Philippines; a moon-drenched Asian ocean bay boiling with insect white noise; a machine/human group conversation between percussion, violin, and computers from RPI in Troy; and an avant-funky improvisation from Sausalito, California, between free-jazz vibraphone, hip-hop scratching, and African-style drumming over a phase-shifted drum machine.

In 1970, Mark Sherman finished a PhD in psychology at Harvard and took a position teaching at SUNY New Paltz. He responded to the area with songs he performed on campus and at Hudson Valley, Berkshires, and New York City venues. Please, Professor eventually came about after an anonymous student wrote on his teacher-evaluation form: "Someday you'll tape your songs and make it big."

Sherman's music is infused with pathos, bawdiness, neurotic wit, and abundant irony. No student or teacher, local, or lover of folk music could help but laugh along with his 16 songs and accompanying stories, including an old answering-machine message from his father: "You are a schmuck," he says. "You know I love ya, bye." With a Portnoy's Complaint-style childhood, no wonder Sherman wound up funny. In "Solitaire Rag," he sings, "In his infinite wisdom/I know God understands/If he didn't want us to grab it/Then why'd he give us hands?" But while Sherman sometimes ponders gender relations (Why is it hard for men to be macho? Because "penis" is "a little kid word," while "vagina" sounds "big and strong"), he's whole, hale, hearty, and hilarious in the end, dedicating "Sweetest Little Ass in the World" to his wife. www.profmarksherman.com.

Back in the day, hip-hop was fun. But times change and now bling's the thing, echoed by G-Unit, Ludacris, Snoop, et al.

What's next? Howzabout post-gangster rap with themes of hope vs. despair and insight vs. chaos. The leaders of this new school are the GreenTeem, a five-man unit based in Hudson. Their debut CD, The Hazard County Project, gives props to the old school while asking where things went so wrong. Masterminded by Fritz "Globug" Schwarz, THCP jumps out the gate with "GameFace," calling each rapper into formation. Everyone drops science on "The Things I See," a haunting ode to urban blight. Then the rappers (Alley Gumbel, Simon, Marblez, and Da Core) break off into duos and trios for 13 other tracks, including the rap-speed metal explosion "Battery Acid" and a classic ode to martial arts flicks, "The Emerald Forest." GT's strength comes from razor-sharp lyrical delivery and creatively twisted production. This is a band to watch, or better yet, listen to online at www.greenteem.net/sample.html.