When he's not crisscrossing the country as Brother Ali's turntablist, Brendan Kelly still likes to spend his time traveling. Actually, he feels like he needs to keep moving.

"I leave my wife stuck at home for months on end while I'm off traveling the world, doing shows," said Kelly, better known to underground hip-hop fans by his DJ moniker, BK-One. "So when I'm not working, I feel like I owe it to her to go off and have adventures of our own."

BK has let those adventures feed back into his work. The Milwaukee-reared, Minneapolis-based mixmaster -- back home for Ali's First Avenue concerts Friday and Saturday -- just issued a fascinating, rap-star-studded disc of his own on Rhymesayers called "Radio do Canibal." The 19-track collection is built on the treasure trove of records he dug up while traveling in South and Central America with his wife.

If you think there's nothing new left to be done in hip-hop, you haven't heard this album. With local beatmaker Benzilla as his co-pilot, BK piled on scads of samples from hundreds of LPs, primarily Brazilian records. He then enlisted a crew of friends (Ali, Slug, I Self Devine, Murs) and heroes (Black Thought, Scarface, Raekwon) to rap over a jungle-thick array of tracks ranging in style from bossa nova to James Brown-ian funk to hotly blown Latin jazz.

Talking before Ali's tour kickoff in Duluth two months ago -- he would be onstage all night, backing openers Toki Wright and Evidence in addition to spinning on his own -- BK smirked when asked about the legalities of sampling from obscure, foreign records.

"Officially, it's 'inspired' by Brazilian music," he said, pointing to Brazilians' own knack for "cultural cannibalism" (hence the title "Radio do Canibal").

"The things that impressed me most about records from Brazil was how open and innovative they are about incorporating all different kinds of music, everything from reggae and African music to Portuguese to psychedelic rock. They're really good at cutting all that up and making it their own thing -- which is what I've done, too."

Benzilla, who also worked on Wright's new album, said BK gave him three CDs' worth of samples that he "just vibed on" for a couple weeks before setting beats on top of them.

"You can use anything to make a hip-hop record, but this stuff just had a feeling to it that seemed to fit hip-hop perfectly," said the real-life Benjamin Haarsager, a St. Paul native who spent parts of his childhood living abroad. "I think we wound up with a really cohesive, conceptual record."

Highlights from "Canibal" include the slyly funky and slightly acidic jams "Face It" and "Blue Balls," featuring Wright and Blueprint, respectively; the dark and steamy, Ali- and Scarface-led attack song "American Nightmare," plus the rapper-less "Tema do Canibal," with its intoxicating blast of bongo drums, horns and cowbell-clanking. Local folkie Aby Wolf also shines like a seductive Bebel Gilberto in the soft gem "Love Like That."

Trained in piano and music theory since childhood, Kelly, 32, moved to the Twin Cities for college and wound up helming Radio K's first all-hip-hop show. He met Ali while DJ-ing at the student station, and the two have been performing together for a decade now.

Two years ago, Kelly's life hit a standstill when his then-fiancée, Julie Graves, was aboard the school bus that miraculously survived the Interstate 35W bridge crash. She suffered fractures to her spine and other broken bones and has endured physical rehab ever since.

"She's doing great, considering," Kelly said.

Their travels on hold for the time being, Kelly and Graves already have an impressive set of passport stamps from Panama, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico. While she's fluent in Spanish, Kelly joked that one of the only phrases he needs to know in Spanish and Portuguese is: "More like this one," which he tells shopkeepers whenever he finds a record he likes.

Right back at you, BK: Mais como este.

Swinging party

She recently got married (to her producer, label boss and new bassist Ed Ackerson), but Mood Swings singer/guitarist Ashley Ackerson hasn't settled down or grown up too much as a frontwoman. Her group's third album for Susstones, "Recessionista," is arguably its most high-strung and sugary effort to date, with bubblegum smeared all over pop-rock nuggets such as the puppy-lovelorn "Crush" and the Go-Go-y "Generation Y."

The title track finds the perfect balance between kids play and adult misery, as Ackerson reflects with Joey Ramone glibness on how she hasn't let the economy dampen her shopping habits: "I shop at flea markets, and on Craigslist / eBay, Tar-zhay, every day I'm gonna save."

CD party is Friday at Sauce with First Communion Afterparty and Two Harbors (9:30 p.m., $5-$7).

Desdamona unplugged

Because she first made her mark as a spoken-word performer, it's hard to believe Desdamona has never released a CD made up entirely of her poetry. Until now, that is. The only instrument featured on "Inkling," the new 16-track collection by the Ill Chemistry songstress and B-Girls Be ringleader, is her voice. And what a powerful one it is.

The disc's centerpiece is "Too Big for My Skin," a riff on body image featured in a PSA-style online video that has gone viral. Other tracks riff on politics, romance and poverty. There's still plenty of hip-hop flavor, too, especially in the crystal-ball-like "We Will Always Be," in which she promises: "When the archaeologists dig up the past, they'll say, 'These homo-sapiens were from the era of hip-hop days ...They will try to recapture the rapture and velocity that left with the flesh of the hip-hop fiends."

CD party is Saturday at Sauce with Ill Chemistry and Alicia Wiley (9 p.m., $5).

Random mix

More Than Lights, the funk/rock/hip-hop septet featuring Kanser rappers New MC and Unicus, hosts a party for its debut "The Electric Prescription for All Your Funky Illz" at the Cabooze on Saturday (9 p.m., $5). The disc mostly boasts slow-moving, positive-vibe-filled jams with singer Natalie Fine providing Fergie-like vocals around the Kanser guys' raps. ...

Eight local bands from the darker, wilder side of the dance-rock scene -- including Avenpitch, OBCT, Pop Inc. and milkbar -- will reconvene at Club Underground in northeast Minneapolis on Saturday to celebrate "TC Electropunk, Vol. 5," another compilation of 16 raging, fiery electronic tracks (9 p.m., $5, CD free at door). ...

Two more star-studded benefit shows for guitar maestro Dean Magraw this week: Celtic folk-rock troupe Boiled in Lead, which counted Magraw as a member in recent years, performs in his honor with guest vocalist Ruth Mackenzie Saturday at Cedar Cultural Center (8 p.m, $15-$18). Then on Wednesday, Ann Reed, Cam Waters, Dan Chouinard, Claudia Schmidt, Dan Newton, Marc Anderson, Leslie Ball, Peter Mayer, Prudence Johnson and Vicky Emerson will perform the State Theatre in Zumbrota, Minn., where Magraw had to cancel a gig with Emerson this summer after his illness, myelodysplastic syndrome, took hold (7:30 p.m, $25 or more, www.crossings atcarnegie.com). ...

With his show there Sunday musspotsold out, Mason Jennings added another gig to the First Ave calendar for Dec. 19. He'll also be on NPR's prestigious "World Cafe" on Dec. 8. And dig the hilarious online clip of Jennings hanging with Tenacious D's Kyle Gass at www.masonjennings.com. ...

One of the most down-and-out songs I've heard by a local artist this year is Dan Israel's "Tomorrow Will Be Really Great," featured on the new House of Mercy all-star kids CD, "The Youngster Parade," for which there's a CD party Saturday at 10 a.m. at Ginkgo Coffeehouse (free). The funny thing is, the song was written with and about Israel's son, Isaac, 4, confirming that even the youngest songwriters among us have it rough.

chrisr@startribune.com • 612-673-4658

We blog music: Check for updates at www.startribune.com/artcetera.