NEW YORK—Danny Elfman, lead vocalist of Oingo Boingo, took an extended vacation in Africa some years ago. A short stay in Uganda coincided with Idi Amin's rookie year in power.

"I remember talking to cab drivers who were jokingly complaining about Amin banning miniskirts, but you could tell people were worried that maybe this buffoon wasn't so funny after all."

Amin's reign, of course, proved to be no barrel of laughs. And neither is Oingo Boingo's second LP, Nothing To Fear, which makes the point that there is everything to fear.

"Each verse," explains the affable, red-haired Elfman, "is about another paranoid fear. We start off with the Russians, move on to child molesting, and end up singing about things that sap our very souls." Idi Amin would probably be amused.

Stylistically, Nothing To Fear is the eight-man band's most experimental project to date. "(Let's Take) The Whole Day Off" is the group's first slow tune; the title cut is Oingo Boingo's initial foray into funk; and "Wild Sex" features a dash of new wave frenticism [sic] plus, as part of the bridge, an East African chant.

"I'm not comparing Oingo Boingo to the Beatles," says Elfman, "but I remember one of the best things about them was you could play the first song on the record and have no idea what the next song would sound like, or the one after that . . . that's what we're going for."

Elfman says Oingo Boingo's emphasis is on "heart and muscle, not technique."

"I'm looking for people who can grow in the band. I couldn't play guitar for shit when the band started, I never had a lesson, but I picked it up."

Oingo Boingo, which has just concluded a U.S. tour, intends to remain an octet, despite continuing business pressures to trim down. "We would have had a record deal two years earlier if we'd cut down to four people," relates Elfman. "We may not have million-selling records, but we got one thing a lot of pop bands don't: an element of endurance."