Apparently, Anthony Bourdain is a fan of Morcheeba, London-based purveyors of down-beat cybernetic pop that coolly works its way through moody atmospherics. The trip-hopsters have just dropped their new full-length (via iTunes; the album will be in stores Feb. 19), Dive Deep, and marked the release by appearing on Bourdain’s No Reservations.

How did the collaboration come about? “We were big fans of Tony's when he came to a local bookshop for a signing. We approached him to meet us for dinner and hang out,” the band’s Paul Godrey tells me. “We got to talking about doing a spoken word track, as his voice is perfect with its natural rhythm and deep resonance. Sometime later he called to say he was in London and that he was ready to lay his new lyrics down.”

The result is “Lisa,” an ode to a female line cook in the notoriously male-dominated culinary world, and it’s delivered in the dryly didactic manner to be expected from Bourdain. The song’s titular heroine can hold her own as well as Bourdain can apparently take stake in the music world. “He nailed it in a take or two,” Godfrey gushes. “When we played it back to him we were all buzzing with excitement.”

More Morcheeba can be heard on their MySpace page.