The Presets, Apocalypso (Modular, 2008)

Listen: “Kicking and Screaming”

“The night belongs to you and I,” Julian Hamilton sings drolly on “This Boy’s in Love,” and the line’s followed by the chorus, sung in falsetto and matched to a descending flutter of keys that sounds like champagne flutes clinking in the night. It’s light; it’s nearly romantic. But then there’s the track’s insistent and dark bottom end, always stabbing and reminding of the darkest corners of Depeche Mode’s canon. The Presets — Hamilton and Kim Moyes — do darkness well. In fact, it’s darkness that they seem to do best. Whereas fellow Australians Cut Copy are at least mostly about pop’s afterglow and making people happy, with 2006’s Beams and now with Apocalypso, it’s the Presets who are the go-to for dancing under neon XXX signs out in the inky night.

“My People,” their advance single, gave us a taste of the new Presets, combing jarring squelch electro with more Hamilton deadpanning on the mic, gathering his forces for a rave on Tina Turner’s Thunderdome (”I’m here with all of my people! Locked up with all of my people!”) where the methane powers the turntables. And it goes on — Apocalypso continues to skulk along with the swelter, from the jittery, 1980s midtempos of “Yippoyo-ay” to the outright Spy Hunter grumble of “Eucalyptus.” And all of this is why the softly-toned intro of “If I Know You” is a such a surprise, and a pleasant one at that. Hamilton finally sounds like he’s really singing, as opposed to leading the charge, and once the keys and electronic percussion kick in, it’s akin to the romanticism in all those English synth-pop songs that checked the Smiths’ love/hate back in the day. Of course, these dudes can’t stay away from the party too long. “If I Know You” is like having a cigarette outside the club before hitting the superheated air and moist fabric of “Together,” which falls right after. And that’s where we kind of want the Presets to be, anyway, even if the ultimate triumph of Apocalypso is how it proves they’ve grown within their own darkness. — Johnny Loftus

Tags: The Presets, Apocalypso, Modular, Julian Hamilton, Kim Moyes, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, Beams, My People