Right, here's how it is: Critters Buggin is hardcore.

When the freakishly boundary-pushing Seattle quartet (veritably legends in the Pacific Northwest) convened last September in drummer Matt Chamberlain's The Kraft Studio, it'd been five years since Amoeba, their fourth and final album on Loosegroove records (Stone Gossard's Epic imprint). But it wasn't for lack of wanting. They were busy, y'understand, off playing with everybody and their moms.

"It's been madness, I tell you," said saxophonics dervish Skerik, who - along with vibraphonist Mike Dillon - signed on with Les Claypool's Flying Frog Brigade, as well as the supergroup Garage-A-Trois (plus a half-dozen other projects, big and tiny). Chamberlain and bassist Brad Houser - both founding members of The New Bohemians - hung in Seattle. Between dates with the likes of David Bowie, Tori Amos, Elton John, Liz Phair, Macy Gray and countless others, Chamberlain tweaked The Kraft to perfection.

Armed with a pair of compositions from each member, Critters Buggin set Stampede live to 16-track, two-inch tape, giving the recordings - especially Dillon's shimmering vibraphone - a warm analog glow. Old hometown friend and avant-garde legend Eyvind Kang (Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Beck, etc.) wrote, arranged, and performed string arrangements for three numbers - including Chamberlain's exquisitely cinematic pan-Asian fantasia "Panang" and Houser's dreamy alien soundscape "Persephone Under Mars" - overdubbing as many as 60 violins and violas in some places.

Critters Buggin is probably also the only group who could issue an album that, completely logically, features guest shots by both a member of Pearl Jam (guitarist Stone Gossard, on the rumbling simmerer "Toad Garden") and two of Morocco's legendary centuries-old, Master Musicians of Jajouka (Bachir and Mustapha Attar, on the evocative requiem "Open the Door of Peace" - also featuring pop producer wunderkind Jon Brion on guitar). Simultaneously heavy and heady, Stampede is adventurous stuff.

"We didn't want to play any shows 'til we had all new songs," Skerik said, as the band prepared to tone down their infamous stage antics in favor of a more straight-ahead live show. After kicking off with a homecoming set at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival in September, the band will tour with fellow avant-jazzers The Bad Plus, drums-and-organs upstarts The Duo, and the rolling Ropeadope New Music Seminar revue. "It's really important for me that we tour the whole country with this record," Skerik noted happily.

It was worth the wait.