Preset to Corny
New York blog Oh My Rockness was right on the money when they described Australian electro duo The Presets as making “club music for people who hate club music.” With Australia quickly stepping into the limelight of today’s electronic music scene, The Presets have played a major role in defining the mushrooming sound and persona for the land down under. Breaking away from the pop-friendliness of fellow Aussies Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernauts, The Presets unleash a new era in darkwave disco. Backed by an overdose of nostalgic kitsch and cheesy disco-inspired, keyboard-driven programming, Apocalypso is the new millennium’s equivalent to The Village People: It’s fun to listen and dance to on a drunken night, but there’s no real essence to back the band.
At times, Apocalypso could be mistaken as one ongoing loop with opener “Kicking and Screaming” striking too similarly to midway track “Yippyo-Ay.” While the filler tracks are blatantly so—”Talk Like That,” “Eucalyptus,” and the extremely annoying “Together”—The Presets do deserve some kudos for their winning singles: the hyper-grimy “My People” and electronic love ballad “This Boy’s In Love.”
But it’s the easily neglected “If I Know You,” “Anywhere,” and “Aeons” that show the duo’s growing comfort with their developing production skills and illustrate the band’s potential for breaking away from cookie-cutter electro. While The Presets are a long way from ranking with top dogs like LCD Soundsystem and Chromeo, they have at least discovered their unique voice, which is more than many young bands can claim.
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