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Surely things can only go downhill when a press release screams ‘LCD Soundsystem, Ozrics and Tangerine Dream collide!’, and then it turns out none of those bands are involved, they’re just the influences.
But these former dance scene darlings from St Petersburg certainly know how to push the right buttons – in a PR sense at the very least – with this self-released second album. It starts very Jean Michel Jarre with Astronomers, a standout fed on a healthy diet of Oxygène and Floyd guitar before breaking into an Air-like stride for Raxxla (Parts 1 & 2). So far, so French disco. Udmurtia is a more abstract journey, ticking away softly like Fuck Buttons on lithium, or Flying Lotus stripped down to a rhythm, and pairs up with the itchy tech of final track Void. But in the middle is the Oldfield new-age of Wed Bells, the slightly cheesy spa treatment chillout Seen Today and the sparkly Waltz On The Run. Taken as a whole it’s really rather old school and charmingly conservative, leaving dynamism to peers such as the edgier Plank, UNKLE offshoot Toy Drum, or the gorgeous Remember Remember. That said, Consequenced is worth a punt though, for the lead track alone.
