Electric Six: Heartbeats And Brainwaves

Detroiters return with another sizzling helping of retro-sleaze.

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It’s too much to ask that Electric Six furnish us with another Danger! High Voltage, but then, there have always been multiple facets to their mutant sound, drawing on the 80s in particular, and all are on display here.

Psychic Visions conjures blurry, jumpy pictures of Gary Numan, The Human League and The Birthday Party, It Gets Hot is good old fashioned dirty funk of the old Prince and Rick James school put through a nu-filter, while Hello! I See You recalls the pop upturn of the 80s that saw Whitney and Phil Collins dominate the charts, lovingly modifying that memory in their own, perverse fashion.

The final, title track is conceived on the same Frankensteinian laboratory slab as early Devo.

There’s a tireless, affectionate wit about the way Electric Six place and twist their sources that makes the Six still more than worthy of your attention.

David Stubbs

David Stubbs is a music, film, TV and football journalist. He has written for The Guardian, NME, The Wire and Uncut, and has written books on Jimi Hendrix, Eminem, Electronic Music and the footballer Charlie Nicholas.