*** Cibo Matto

SUPER RELAX

(Warner Bros.)

Although it's designed to launch the tony and luscious (Jackson-y) single "Sugar Water" to commercial radio, Cibo Matto use the nine-track EP Super Relax to continue flexing genre-bending muscles. Not that the sudden shifts between slick electronic dance grooves and noisy avant-skronk that marked last year's acclaimed Viva! La Woman (Warner Bros.) weren't challenging enough.

Super Relax offers four different versions of "Sugar Water": the original; a simmering jungle-inflected remix featuring Beastie Boy Mike D. and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion drummer Russell Simins; a Latin-tinged "acoustic version" with Sean Lennon on bass, Marc Ribot on guitar, and Yuko Honda handling some suave piano chordings; and a stripped-down, dub-heavy remix by the Brit DJ duo Coldcut. You also get an explosive live recording of a new tune, "BBQ," replete with raw hip-hop beats and Miho Hatori's blood-curdling screaming-in-tongues; a sweet-and-soulful, funked-up gem (the previously unreleased "Spoon"); a meandering ambient experiment ("Crumbs"); and a loose, guitar-based cover of the Rolling Stones tune "Sing This All Together." Not bad for what could just as easily have been a couple of throwaway B-sides.

-- Matt Ashare

(Cibo Matto and the Pulsars play downstairs at the Middle East tonight, February 13.)