And you thought the bleep was dead. French duo the Micronauts have come to resurrect the bleep long abandoned to appearances on Rave Nu World '91 compilations. They've wrecked the harmless little guy until he's unfit for further duty, but hey! Whatever you have to do to get noticed in these pop princess times.

You remember bleeps, right? They were the tribbles of the early UK rave scene: among the more memorable bleep tracks were Sweet Exorcist's "Testone," Nightmares on Wax's ecstasy-horror "Aftermath," the Forgemasters' "Track with No Name," and of course, the most joyous and floor-buckling of them all, the KLF's "What Time is Love." (Yes, the KLF song is a bleep track-- check the original version!)

But if you've forgotten the mayhem that innocuous bleeps can unleash, Monsieurs Issadakis and Monier haven't. Rather than retreading the bleep's rave-o-matic past, they've grafted a few dozen of the critters onto Mr. Oizo's kindred, analog-warped noise. Except the Micronauts aren't cruel to broken, invalid beats like Oizo. For Bleep to Bleep the Micronauts drafted only solid, fighting-fit, four-to-the-floor pumpin' kickdrums. Nope, these guys bully bleeps-- they won't leave the things alone! For 40 minutes, Bleep to Bleep subjects you to beautiful violence. Man, how much pain did those innocent bleeps have to endure?

Though white noise tides shred through "Baby Wants to Bleep Part 2," it's not until "Bleep_0+2" that things get truly strange. Truly strange as in waking up to find a bonsai tangerine tree growing from your navel and spending the rest of the day negotiating the challenges of putting on your favorite Ratt t-shirt-- that's how fucking strange the track is.

The title track belongs firmly on Planet Crackle with Stefan Betke's Waldorf-4 Pole Filter as its sole companion, but lacks the chin-stroking self-consciousness of Pole's 21st dub. Nope, here as almost everywhere else on this EP, beats stomp all over bleeps and you get to witness the pummeling.

And that's the rub; the Micronauts' debut single, the irritating "The Jag," didn't prepare us for Bleep to Bleep's relentless proficiency. Nor did the duo's remix of Underworld's "Bruce Lee" fully indicate where they could take us. Bleep to Bleep demonstrates that these guys have got the skills to crank beats, but can they come up with an album? Will they just be a singles act? Mr. Oizo's Analog Worms Attack-- Bleep to Bleep's less inbred cousin-- satisfies because of Oizo's playfulness and his ripped leftfield swipe at beat science. But the Micronauts will need more than white noise and a supermarket scanner to surpass the Worm boy. For now, however, the bleep is dead again and we know whodunnit. No need for forensics, just the coroner. And a new bass bin. Mine's wrecked.

-Paul Cooper