Rhythm King and Her Friends

Le Tigre better watch their backs — there are some new girls in town. Berlin trio Rhythm King and Her Friends do the spoken-sung thing over quirky beats with a Euro twist. The feminist edge is there, but this trio takes the Kitty-Yo sexthetic to heart — "Shock” loops the phrase "I don’t like your body/you don’t like my body” over and over until it becomes more of a deadpan observation than a reproach. Charmingly-accented English gives way to French on a couple of tracks, and the beats are uniformly catchy, especially on the title track, which bounces along on snaky synthetic bass lines. Sure, it’s trendy, but thankfully nothing here degenerates into dreaded electroclash. There’s a tiny note in the liner notes to "file under elektro” — never mind that, just file under "fun.”