‘Floor’ Flaunts Fatboy Slim’s Club Talents

***FATBOY SLIM

“On the Floor at the Boutique”

Astralwerks

In “The Rockefeller Skank” and “Praise You,” Fatboy Slim showed remarkable talent for cutting and pasting borrowed novelty hooks and bouncy rhythms with an uncanny instinct for cresting and ebbing dynamics. But that’s only the compact version of what he does with a whole set as a dance-floor DJ.

This album of just such a set at London’s Big Beat Boutique club shows those talents at their best. Originally released in England two years ago, “On the Floor” (due in stores Tuesday) opens with a hyper, loungey version of the old surf instrumental “Apache” by one Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band, and it never lets up. Cannibalizing, manipulating and recontextualizing clips ranging from the Jungle Brothers hip-hop chant “Because I Got It Like That” to such oddball found-sound items as Mr. Natural’s “The Green Jesus,” Slim’s own “Michael Jackson” and Christopher Just’s bloodless computer-voice reading of “I’m a Disco Dancer,” he keeps the mind engaged along with the feet--something many DJ albums don’t manage.

One caveat: The mix version of “Rockefeller” that closes the set is not the one Slim used in clubs last year layering the Rolling Stones’ signature “Satisfaction” lick over the funk-soul-brother surf beat. But there’s little else lacking on this party platter.

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