To paraphrase Frank Zappa, does humor belong in experimental music? It does--not only to offset the uneasy, "what the fuck am I listening to" chortles occasionally heard at experimental music gigs, but to offer a cheery respite from the serious mission of subverting mainstream music. While it is easy to resort to scatological humor--Zappa's poo-poo caca lyrics derailed a good chunk of his otherwise interesting music--provoking genuine laugh-out-loud guffaws is damn difficult.

Les Voix Vulgaires--their moniker alludes to the once trendy Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares--is a trio of three masterfully hilarious singers: Amy Denio, Detonator Beth, and King Leah. Denio, the best known of the three, has a multi-octave voice that can veer from glowering rumbles to siren squeaks in a trice. The aptly named Detonator Beth has brought her vigorous operatic voice to several local agglomerations of improvising musicians. Until moving to Berlin last year, King Leah was active in the SoniCabal, an archly eclectic Seattle sound-art collective. Her brief return to Seattle will be welcomed by those who recall her loft gigs and stubborn brand of performance art.

This performance celebrates the release of Natural Progression (Spoot Music), a CD that inhabits the sparsely populated territory of humorous experimental music. The voices of Amy Denio, Detonator Beth, and King Leah are indeed vulgar, warping astonishing vocal techniques into demented performance art. Burbling amid a ululating gumbo of panting, whispering, and yelling, Les Voix Vulgaires range from the mumbling of Muppets gone mad to the childlike voices of space aliens to the rasping moans of that one-night stand that you (and, alas, your neighbors) will never forget. CHRISTOPHER DeLAURENTI

Les Voix Vulgaires perform Fri Dec 13 (Polestar Music Gallery, 1412 18th at East Union, 329-4224) at 8 pm, $6.

chris@delaurenti.net