Uncommonly clever samplers, Greg Kurstin and Tommy Jordan treat the studio as if it were Pee-wee's Playhouse, manufacturing novel sounds with the zest of such technophile eccentrics as Zappa, Prince or Steely Dan. All wordplay and weird rhythm, "L.A. Lujah," "Bomb Fishing," and "P. Sluff" are more than nifty mind games, however. The duo's classical and jazz backgrounds prop up songs whose structural inventiveness rewards saturation listening after the first delightful surprise. The first U.S. signing to David Byrne's world-music label, Geggy Tah muster wise-guy vocals, kooky instrumentation and loopy brainpower for a debut that creates its own aural planet. Positively surreal. (RS 686/687)

PAUL EVANS