** Lords of Acid

EXPAND YOUR MIND

(Antler Subway)

For some reason, Belgium's Lords of Acid, 13 years after they began, have decided to go lounge, abandoning a major share of the techno textures they helped invent. The result is the least satisfying LOA CD yet, a nice enough piece of Kid Creole-ish dance-floor chatter but entirely lacking in the craziness that was so crucial to the group's sensibility -- the dark drama, heart-stopping beats and bass syncopations, and leering lusty put-ons by LOA's vocal comedienne, Nikki Van Lierop, that made CDs like Our Little Secret so unsettling. Neither do Expand Your Mind's many remixes of LOA classics -- "Lover," "Rough Sex," "I Sit on Acid," "Rubber Doll," -- satisfy. The LOA originals took busy burlesque to the limits of directional complexity. The new ones go everywhere at once, and nowhere. Fans may well like hearing LOA cut themselves to bits; other listeners should stick with Our Little Secret.

-- Michael Freedberg