Stereolab, “Emperor Tomato Ketchup,” Elektra (***).

Stereolab specializes in ambience rather than songs, so if you cringe at the sound of old synthesizers or loathe repetition, you will hate this album. But the mood-music-impaired will thrill to this taut, concentrated version of the peculiar atomic-age swing that Stereolab first churned out with its 1992 release, “Peng!”

Now that the so-called Moog Revival has been popularized by such acts as Pavement and the Rentals, maybe Stereolab--whose other trademarks are the Vox and Farfisa organ and French-born singer Laetitia Sadier’s cool layer of vocal frost--will get its due.

It’s appropriate that the first track on this heady album is titled “Metronomic Underground.” From there to the final slow fade of “Anonymous Collective,” the music is as rhythmically predictable as the most reliable grandfather clock. With each listen, though, “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” reveals added depth, another unusual experimental tweak. Despite its calculation, the album navigates an exciting wave of feverishly percolating avant-pop.

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