The Presets - Apocalypso (Modular)

By the time that's over, you'll know what their second album is all about - no holds barred pop music given a razor sharp edge with lithe bass lines, lean electronic beats and vocals that take the best in 1980s electro as their starting point. Sensibly the Presets push on from there, so that while there are strong elements of Phil Oakey and Dave Gahanin Julian Hamilton's vocals , they never impose at the expense of the music's overall forward drive.

And drive is what this record has in abundance, for having taken you by the scruff of the neck it refuses to put you down until, kicking and screaming, you've danced your last to Anywhere. By that time the sharp shooting riffing, lyrical vignettes and barbs, not to mention a feeling of no holds barred hedonism, will have surely lifted you skyward.

From this you may have determined subtlety is in relatively short supply, but it can be found. While This Boys In Love proclaims, "Tonight the world belongs to you and I" its chorus suggests a sweeter vulnerability. If I Know You begins on a reflective note, soft pads supporting Hamilton's ruminations. A hint of Holly Johnson comes into the vocal for this song, and its observation "I always learn things the hardest way" is genuinely affecting.

There's no doubt this album will work extremely well live, as its energy and vigour are contagious. Such is the spontaneity of the writing it could almost have been done in one take, save for the polish a bit of post-production brings.

As an album that builds on the best elements of 1980s electro it works a treat, bringing that genre kicking and strutting through teleportation to the 21st century dancefloor. Leave your bags and coats at the door, it's time to get very innocuous indeed!

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