***
Arriving (hopefully) on the downslide of pure '80s redux and the plateau of messy "reinterpretation" is an artist capable of combining the zip and boing of synth-pop bands like Erasure and Berlin with the craft of the decade's more textural acts--new wave mad professor Thomas Dolby's pre-1984 material and the early-output post-punk explorations of Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark--and also revisiting the trails first blazed by Kraftwerk and Neu!, making for a smartly original debut. Unlike fellow electro-pop collage artists Chicks on Speed, Anna Oxygen's approach on All Your Faded Things is smooth and her launch and eventual faultless landing is fluidly expansive. The vocal layers (as simple as a word reproduced and repeated to infinity, becoming nothing more than beat) stepladder over one another, and then the composition charges off in an unexpected, but not jerky, direction. Oxygen's voice and those of her helpers exhibit a like tone, but the expression is impressively versatile, be it a full-lunged staccato, a sugary pop harmony, or a glassy angelic lilt. Though the Seattle artist's influences are anything but faded, her use of them is the brightest thing to happen to those older sounds in quite a while. KATHLEEN WILSON

Anna Oxygen performs at CoCA on Sun Aug 10 with [[[[VVRSSNN]]]] and Landing, 8 pm, $5.

REGGIE WATTS

Simplified

(NonLinear Productions)

***
Unlike many people I know, I am not going to be a playa hater; I will admit that local soul singer Reggie Watts' new solo CD, Simplified, is not bad at all. Certainly it's not what I look for in music, but as a new wavish/neosoulish work of pop music, it achieves most of what it sets out to accomplish--to create a seductive album.

It's beyond argument that the Maktub frontman's modeus operandi is seduction--he wants to woo the listener with his smooth operation, make us take off all our clothes and surrender everything to his velvety voice. He comes at us instructed by the school of soul that is heavy on the candlelit flirtation vibe, and this time, Watts takes his cues from the likes of such masters as Barry White, Bryan Ferry, and Gregory Isaacs' lonely-lover thing, among others. With Simplified, most of the songs nearly inticed me, and two certainly did--"Part of the World" and "Broken Dreams," which, interestingly enough, were the only two songs not saturated by his bedroom vibe.

Overall, the most admirable thing about Simplified is the production (which was done by Steve Fisk): It is exquisitely clean and highly developed. Whether or not it seduces every listener caught within its spell, each track on the album is filled with instrumentation and Watt's charm, and nothing spills over the rim. CHARLES MUDEDE

Reggie Watts, P.K., and members of Maktub perform Thurs Aug 7 at the Scarlet Tree, 9:30 pm, $6.

**** Frank Cassano *** Frank Nieto ** Frank Black * frankfurter