HinweiseSofa Surfers' Vienna is much more sinister than the creative stomping ground of classical icons and the cobblestoned gateway to Eastern Europe images most of us usually think of. As a response to Austria's strained political atmosphere, where recent years have seen a rise in support for the far-right Freedom Party, third album 'Encounters' portrays a much more fraught vision. 'Encounters' gathers together a diverse collection of collaborators for its political attack, driving forward in a multicoloured phalanx of influences with a predatory sound that belies Sofa Surfers' relaxed name and reputation. Menacing dub takes its position next to the coffeehouse ragga of 'Passin' Tru' and the rock-heavy basslines of 'What Kind Of World' in tackling xenophobia and geo-social boundaries. Dälek's erratic hip-hop adds to the paranoid atmosphere. Well-respected names like Junior Delgado, Sensational from the Jungle brothers, and Jeb Loy Nichols all make memorable appearances. However it's underground spoken word artist Oddatee who delivers the album highlight, the avant-hop '21st Century Army', with his rapacious chants of "Show me your way of life and show me your identification card". For all of its rabble-rousing ambition and way-out-there instrumentation, is it listenable? Yes, for the most part. With the exception of Mark Stewart's disappointing contribution (industrial progout a little close to the NIN-offcut bin), 'Encounters' ebbs and flows in the right places, and its sentiments, while noble, are never too preachy. Sofa Surfers have traded chilled for chilling and are all the more worth investigating for it. Leslie Gilotti