Patton’s experiment gets many collaborators

Peeping Tom

“Peeping Tom” (Ipecac)

* * * 1/2

MIKE PATTON thrives best when working just below the surface, singing and purging and purring across a wide spectrum of experimental pop extremes. He was an MTV star during his 10 years in Faith No More but has spent the years since pushing his personal musical envelope under the names Tomahawk and Fantomas, and in collaboration with the likes of John Zorn and Bjork.

Peeping Tom is less avant-aggro than some of those projects. It works equally as a setting for his quieter moments (the tropical “Caipirinha”) and for the melodic vocal rages that defined Faith No More’s hits. This debut album comes after three years of long-distance collaborations with a long wish-list of musicians, as Patton traded music files with Massive Attack, Kool Keith and Norah Jones for tweaking and transformation.

The result is less bombast than a slippery echo of ‘90s trip-hop, unfolding with the stirring “Five Seconds,” a collage of the Near East and crisp electronics, silky soul and sudden bursts of intensity. For the smoky rumble of “Mojo,” he’s joined by Dan the Automator and Rahzel (ex-Roots), while Kool Keith steps in for the cosmic hip-hop of “Getaway.”

Near the end comes a duet with Jones on “Sucker,” in which the jazzy singer-songwriter purrs to a would-be suitor: “What makes you think you’re my only lover?” Her offhand delivery only makes the insult that much more potent, suggesting both the power of understatement and the infinite joys of pop experimentation.

-- STEVE APPLEFORD