One of the most randomly pleasant surprises of the musical year was the emergence into the semi-limelight of a bedroom-confined French keyboard duo called M83. Their stupidly good album, Dead Cities, Red Seas And Lost Ghosts is awash with starbursts of dense, beautiful sound; high-velocity rushes of sampled ethereal feedback; and lush shoegazing drones (interestingly, this is the first appearance of these adjectives since 1992 when used in a Slowdive album review!).

The second single lifted from the album is 0078h. Together with the band name, this may cause the uninitiated to wonder which is the bar code and which is the title upon picking up the CD. But impenetrable monicker aside, it's an excellent choice of single as it contains all the essential elements that set this remarkable combo aside.

Battle commences with a single note of throbbing feedback wail, before a deep bass hum and frenzied drum loops join the mix, topped off with Air-y keyboard chimes and the kind of sampled dreamy female vocal loop that My Bloody Valentine once mastered. This is truly sensory overload of the very best kind. I order you to submit to their masterful sonic spell.

(CD)

BUY m83 - 0078h (Vinyl)

m83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts

m83 - Run Into Flowers

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