File Under Nile : Check List ****<i> Great Balls of Fire</i> ***<i> Good Vibrations</i> **<i> Maybe Baby</i> *<i> Running on Empty </i>

***CINEMA. “Wrong House.” Craig Holliman sings/talks like a graduate of the Nile Rodgers Institute of Black Rock on “Put You in My Pocket,” one of this debut album’s headiest tracks. On the same tune, group member Kimberly Wright fires off vocal shots that are sinewy and Chic-like. Leader Holliman has formed a quartet that builds much of its music on a bass-drum sound that’s as rugged and offbeat as anything from the rap school. This album’s best brainstorms are on Side 1, from the title cut, which has a sexy, play-me- loud immediacy, to “New Girl Now,” on which Holliman seems to enjoy the latest love of his life just slightly more than he enjoys lording it over his former flame. Holliman is the funkiest discovery from Flint, Mich., since Ready for the World, and his musical instincts are even more worldly.