As the flying saucers, hovercars and titanium skylines that grace many techno album covers demonstrate, electronica is future-oriented music. Lately, however, a handful of artists – most prominently the French duo Air and the Scottish duo Boards of Canada – have set their time machines to the past, using their armamentarium of high-tech gizmos to lovingly recapture and then slyly recast the foggily remembered sounds of their childhoods: The latest entry in this movement – let's call it technostalgia – is Tally Ho!, from Wagon Christ, the artist also known as Luke Vibert and Plug. But unlike Air or the Boards, Wagon Christ evinces not an iota of wistfulness about the halcyon sounds of yesteryear. The steam-powered Tally Ho! sets its sampled kiddie fare – fart noises, florid glissandi, collegiate harmony singing – to perky rhythms and then slaps sophomoric titles like "Piano Playa Hata" and "My Organ in Your Face" on the results. Silly, yes, but also good, discombobulating fun – like a Firesign Theater album without any actual verbal content. One track is called "Memory Towel," but it seems to be a towel that works in reverse: By the time Wagon Christ is done drying off, his source material is all wet. (RS 801)

JEFF SALAMON