Ever since Dizzee Rascal replaced my French rap jones with a craving for Cockney couplets, I've been looking for more Eastender-style rhymes to enhance my CD collection. The eclectic mixes and laid-back flow of British-born Pakistani Y. Misdaq (aka Yoshi) are worthy successors to Dizzee's bizarre beats and staccato flow. Yoshi dishes out mildly political verse on "A'Salaam Alaikum, How do U do?" ("Disposable nappies full of government bullshit") and "Misty" ("Just cause I say 'Free Palestine,' right, you want to look me up and down like I'm a stranger in your town").

A self-proclaimed "Renaissance Paki" whose influences include Prince, Miles Davis, DJ Shadow and Nas, Yoshi's music is exciting, buoyed by a frankness bordering on naiveté as he unabashedly proclaims, "I got a mindful of music, I love it a lot." Indeed, his love of hip-hop, and of music in general, comes through in both his willingness to experiment and in his lyrics. Like DJ Shadow and U.N.K.L.E., Yoshi draws on quirky samples from television shows, kitschy old-tyme tunes and spacy jazz beats. True to hip-hop form, he also brags, but his boasts are modest and believable -- as on "My View", where he gloats, "I got this mike in my hand, and by the way I'm getting paid, but I'm giving it to charity, so what d'you say, man?"

There are plenty of spaces between From a Western Box's words; indeed, near the end of the album there are a few completely instrumental songs in which the only words are what sound like sampled movie dialogue. However, the lack of lyrics allows the sound bytes to make their point -- in this case, recapitulating meaningless rhetoric about the war on Iraq. The closing tracks, "Misty" and "Nightmare on Terror", return Yoshi's flow to the political tip, and the hidden track at the disc's end is an ambient brew of birds and wind, perhaps intended to soothe you on your way out of the Box.

Yoshi's genuine enthusiasm can't help but seep into your consciousness, its example encouraging you to pursue the things that you love.