In the world of electronica, Jon Fugler and the rest of Fluke find themselves in the midst of what some are saying is a techno musical explosion. Ironically, the tune they making their particular impact with has a most appropriate title.

If you lived anywhere near a dance floor, tuned into college radio or happened to be a regular viewer of MTV's electronica show AMP this past summer, chances are you've heard Fluke's song "Atom Bomb" (RealAudio excerpt) featuring an insistently catchy synthesizer riff bleeping away in tandem with a cigarettes-and-alcohol stained voice chanting the refrain "Baby's got an atom bomb, a motherfucking atom bomb..." again and again. Comprised of frontman Fugler, Mike Bryant, Mike Tournier, and the new Keith Flint-esque (Prodigy) stage member Rachel, Fluke has made a seismic impact on the landscape of electronic music in a fairly short period, fueled by the success of their inescapable songs and catchy grooves.

"We decided to let it go and let people hear it," Fugler said, of the infectiously danceable tune with the stream-of-consciousness lyrics, "and hopefully they'll like it and want to hear more."

So far, the strategy seems to be working, with Fluke getting heavy MTV and college radio play these days, and clubs blasting their beats across dance floors around the country.

The group was conceived in England in 1989 by the two Mikes and Fugler, who shared a house in London. The combo released a series of singles which led to the band's first longplayer, Techno Rose of Blighty in 1991. Fluke decided soon after to release another series of singles, which combined with their remix work for the likes of the Icelandic enigma Bjork, kept the band occupied for the next six years.

The long drought ended last month with the release of Risotto, the band's brand new opus featuring "Atom Bomb." The fact that "Atom Bomb" has been used on countless electronic compilations, from the Wipeout XL soundtrack to MTV's AMP compilation has contributed to the explosion.

It was circumstance and not financial gain that motivated the band to release the song again and again, according to Fugler, who maintained, "Those kind of songs that work like that help, but we tended to license tracks to compilations because we didn't have a finished album in America."

Also, more people buy compilations than finished albums by bands, he said, adding that in America, people don't have the ability to buy singles as much as in England. Besides, the record company and publisher swallow up most of the cost, he said. With advances, Fugler added, the band gets paid at the beginning of the year and subsequent earnings from the album go to pay off any added expenses. The song's eye-popping video has greatly contributed in its success as well. A psychedelic mish-mosh of virtual reality-inspired futuristic racing scenes and espionage-themed Japanese animation, starring a spirited and diminutive heroine, the video was the perfect embodiment of the essence of Fluke: kitschy and remarkably cool.

Ironically, the band had less to do with the video's making than the concept behind it, according to Fugler. "Well, the basic idea was ours. We were at a particularly busy time of our lives, though, so we didn't really get that involved... When someone comes up to us for a piece of music, we don't necessarily want them around while we're making the piece of music. Someone else will make a video better than we can."

Still, Fugler admits the band wasn't completely pleased with the finished product. "Having said that, we'd have probably made a much different video than they did. It's quite funny that the video went down so well in America. In many ways, we didn't like the girl in the video. We didn't think she could act very well. She was very pretty, but a bit wooden, d'you know what I mean?" Nonetheless, the band does feature a heroine of their own who can more than live up to their danceable standards. Rachel, Fluke's secret weapon in live performance, offers her punk-ish visual style to the band's aural assault, making for a complete sensory package on stage.

As she and Fugler pace the stage and peer into the audience, it's as if they dare you to not dance your ass off to their grooves. As Fuguler tells it, her presence is actually due to the observation of another up-and-coming electro-genius, Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim). "Live last year, we did quite a few festivals. One night, we ended up playing the same time as Norman and he said, 'You look like a caged tiger prowling around up there, Jon.' We thought it would be neat to get a couple of other 'cats' up on stage."

With a chuckle, Jon reveals his motivation was a bit selfish as well. "We came up with the idea of getting a stalker on stage because I was feeling quite lonely as a caged tiger up there. A big stage can be quite intimidating, really." [Tues., Oct. 14, 1997, 9 a.m. PDT]