The Fall’s Mark E. Smith possesses one of the most recognizable voices in music; Teutonic boomers Mouse on Mars have one of the least. Which is why this collaboration between the slurring Mancunian post-punk and electronic beat jockeys Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner works so well. Von Südenfed sound like a mutual-admiration society: Smith wants an excuse to go out clubbing, and Mouse on Mars need a voice to anchor their all-over-the-place sounds. MOM’s big single from their last disc was “Wipe That Sound,” and it resurfaces here as “That Sound Wiped,” recast with Smith’s troubadour deadpan (dude makes Leonard Cohen sound like Akon, for God’s sake). But it’s as subversive an underground-pop hit as it can get, slow-motion disco with a slurring front man. “Rhino,” meanwhile, is a fully fleshed-out verse-chorus-verse song, with Smith not only singing, but also pretty much killing it.

Reflexxions’ next-wave tone is set by Smith’s not-quite-’avin’-it stance; his cheeky sneer gives Von Südenfed a kind of post-everything tone. No member sounds like he’s trying too hard, so if a track does make you want to throw down, so be it. But if it doesn’t, you feel like you’re listening to a lost Fall album if electronics muse/guitarist Brix were the only member left.

This rhythm collision (deadpan meets dead-on) is heard best on “Flooded.” Smith spits a dream-weaving narrative over a clip-clopping fits-and-blurps grime beat about a DJ showing up for a gig and finding another jock in the booth (the sleeping-through-the-exam dream of DJs, apparently)—all this from his barstool pulpit, wonderfully off the dance floor itself, where he belongs, even if Toma and St. Werner still want (and get) on.

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