The fusion of electronic and R&B has never been as popular as it should be (remember Atlantic‘s unprofitable gamble on Craig David five years ago?). While today‘s pop charts offer plenty of riff-driven, Neptunes-inspired fluff, Steve Spacek offers a smoother, more soulful version that channels a futuristic Al Green. It‘s all sexy stuff, with softer trip-hop edges than Spacek‘s eponymous London group a few years ago. Bouncy funk creeps through minimalist beats on “Slave,” conjuring visions of sashaying hips, but it‘s Spacek‘s falsetto croons and broken beats on “Rapid Rate” that could retrace the disjointed, stop-go paces of any urban romantic.