Though ultimately laid-back, Friedman's noise-tinged arrangements teeter on the edge of the chaos implied by dub's echo chamber without bowing to the genre. Like most of '70s-era Jamaican dub producers that inspire him, the Berliner strengthens Can't Cool with singers, all of whom fill his spare soundscapes with subtle feeling rather than tired ad-libbing. Nigerian singer Don Abi features on four emotive tunes, and Friedman most skillfully supports his Richie Havens-like crooning with the warm, resolute minor-key melody of the driving "Fly Your Kite." On "Life Is Worth Dying For," Cologne-based ragga chanteur Patrice Bart-Williams' vocal grain evokes the heart-wrenching "sufferer" vibe of original rootsman Horace Andy, then starkly contrasts it with his dark, reptilian chanting on the noir-jazzy "Get Things Straight." Fittingly, Friedman caps the album's vocal selections by getting Detroit vocalist Lovetta Pippen to accompany his beatific (and all too short) treatment of the classic "Someday My Blues Will Cover the Earth" by her former alt-folk-blues band His Name Is Alive. Can't Cool closes with instrumentals that offer an elliptical path out of Friedman's compelling vision of what nu-dub -- and indeed all electronica -- can feel like.