Muggs came to prominence concocting stoned-soul hip-hop hits for Cypress Hill, wrangling everything from folk rhythms to the smoky bubble sounds of a bong hit into boisterous, grand grooves. Yet on Dust, the hip-hop DJ/producer seems to take his cues from his atmospheric collaboration with electronic gypsy Tricky from two years ago, Juxtapose (Island). The result is an assemblage of ephemeral, genre-less, mood-music tracks. He corrals rippling pianos, grinding guitars, and dublike bass riffs into down-tempo, melancholy odes sung by the likes of former Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli, Everlast, ex-Buckcherry singer Josh Todd, and newcomer Amy Trujillo. On "Fat City," he coaxes Dulli into a slow dance full of drunken boasts; "Faded" finds shadowy pop comfort in the flat but emotive tenor of Todd’s voice. If you think you might have heard this kind of music before, you have: Portishead, Massive Attack, and Tricky are all archetypes of the style, and Muggs seems to be coming to the party years too late. Still, for him this is new musical terrain, and his enthusiasm in exploring it is infectious.