to its drum and bass (as in the instruments) essentials. On the new compilation Liquid Liquid, the most fully evolved of the band's rare grooves combine a bare-bones ominousness comparable to early Public Image Ltd. with floor-rattling conga and marimba syncopation.

Heard now, Liquid Liquid could almost pass for present-day DJ-mixed techno music, the tranciness of which also seems to be rejuvenating eternal electropoppers Duran Duran. Medazzaland sets jazzish doodling, adult-contemporary sincerity, Queen-campy crunch and sad, "Dust in the Wind" acoustic tapestries to newfangled mechanical clanks. It finds its dizziest hooks in the updated-Eurodisco of "Electric Barbarella," a runway-model-seduction number titled after the 1968 movie that inspired Duran Duran's name. That very name, you might notice, has always embodied an assemblyline sense of repetition in and of itself – not unlike Liquid Liquid, appropriately enough. (RS 774)

CHUCK EDDY