absolutely addicted
I have not been able to stop playing The Presets latest album Apocalypso since it was released last month. Not since The National’s Boxer has an album received this much of my constant attention. Everything I like about 80’s, Industrial, Synthpop, Dance n whatnot is wrapped up in this tight lil package. Seeing them @ Northsix (what sort of abysmal name is “The Music Hall of Williamsburg” anywhy) certainly didn’t help the addiction any, the whole sold out place was going absolutely mental. I don’t know how the two of them work a crowd into a frenzy like that but it was incredible.
So far this is hands down my favorite album of ‘08.
I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but something about it all just works. The energy, the attention to detail, the range, the sometimes filthy cheese of it all is just everything I have wanted from a dark electronic pop band for way too long. Apocalypso is by far the most consistent and catchy package the duo has released. They deserve to go far.
I could gush about this album all freakin day. Download it now. See them live. Sneerious.
I like them a lot, but I like their previous albums a lot more than the newest one personally. New one has some great tracks on it, but the second half of the album is kind of a disaster in my opinion, especially tracks such as ‘If I Know You’ and ‘Together’ which I actually removed from my library—mainly because the vocals are simply annoying. I like songs 1, 2, 3, and 5 the best.
I would probably agree that ‘Together’ is the low point of the album. I waffle on ‘If I Know You’, sometimes I rather enjoy it.
I loved Beams too, but something about this one just has me coming back all the time.
I was very excited to hear they had a new album out and downloaded it straightaway. Like porieux, I was a little disappointed with it but it has grown on me. I think I was expecting a bit more in the vocal department as it does get a little talk/shouty.
Having said that the music is bona fide. Good gloopy beats on tracks like Kicking & Screaming and Eucalyptus plus some Depeche Mode-esque pop in This Boy’s In Love.
Beams is the better album. A Classsic really. Good humored and great tracks.
I’m not sold on this by those samples. Musically, it sounds like a retread of old EBM/industrial like Front 242, Front Line Assembly, Nitzer Ebb, etc, and the singing is not particularly good. Maybe I got more than enough of this stuff the first time around; it’s not like I listen to much of it any more, whereas I do still listen to John Foxx, early Human League, and more inventive new bands like Ladytron.
Actually, with the silly song titles and the mention of “the sometimes filthy cheese of it all,” I’m reminded of some of the bands that were on the Electroclash compilation that no one has heard from since — recreating an old sound with a deliberately smirking cheesiness that undercuts any claim to actually enjoying or taking the seriously the original artists who did that kind of stuff when it was new.
Oooooohhhh finally something I can totally obsess over that is not She Wants Revenge but has the nice broody synth-pop dark new wave feel. Yay!
I am intensely hooked on this band now. And may I say this is SOOO much better than Cut Copy which I downloaded in the hopes that after a few listens it would grow on me (totally failed to do so).