“What does it mean?” asks the faceless female who is coaxed into opening this album, still unsure of what the title Koolmotor means. What can’t be put into words is better described sonically upon listening to the debut album from Five Deez.

Cats may best know the Deez from their 1999 little heard debut single “Blue Light Special”, which was shared with fellow Ohio natives Lone Catalysts and Mr. Dibbs. Their style has matured since their early years, and with Koolmotor, along with his other recent projects, (Maurice Galactica’s Humanoid Erotica and 3582′s The Living Soul) Fat Jon has graduated into one of underground hip-hop’s greatest new beatmakers. While the album may seem like a heavy plate to digest at first, after a few spins, the listener gets sucked into his brilliant audio landscapes, with beats so laid back that they almost smoke the weed for you. Whether the Deez aren’t terribly brilliant lyrically, they do have some profound moments at times, such as on “Instruments Of The Trade (The Word)”, where the emcee proclaims, “we just slaves to this word called time, check your watch. It’s the shackle.” But as emcees, they do host the cool-out well, blending well with whatever beautiful beats Fat Jon has orchestrated for them, be it the sexual sound-healing “Omni”, or the loneliness of rejection on, “Instruments Of The Trade (The Word)”, which ingeniously captures the cold of Ohio through the music itself. And while they sound completely unnatural kicking flossy rhymes on “Got Dough”, (be it intentional or sarcastic), for the most part they don’t stray off course too often, shining with equal brightness when spitting at hip-house speeds on “Ten”, or slowly harmonizing on “Sexual For Elizabeth”.

But with beats this good, the Five Deez could be rhyming about different kinds of fish and it would sound fresh – hell, even Shing02 , who rhymes entirely in Japanese, keeps your attention when he makes a cameo on the album, because the beats are so beautiful. And even if you aren’t open to the emcees, there is an instrumental album, which is perfect music to make love to your old lady by. Working as the perfect introductory piece to the Fat Jon’s production, as well as the Ohio scene, it’s only a matter of time before artists like Mos Def, Common, or Digable Planets (oops, shh!), start tapping Jon for production. So what does Koolmotor mean? Listen to the album and soon you’ll understand.