604

Twice, while I’m playing this, someone wanders into the office and pipes up along the lines of "This Kraftwerk, then?" And while, doubtless, the po-futuristic foursome could spend an hour and a half explaining why they’re more than just a familiar trip down the Autobahn, whether the difference is enough to register with an audience raised on Hearsay isn’t yet clear. This is one problem with the future.

Sure, there are obvious elements of Teutonic tech-trawling here, but Ladytron can never quite keep a straight-enough face. Eagle comic dreams of the shape of things to come always resembled a misdubbing of something European for a Home Counties audience – more Hectors House than Bauhaus – and, with references points embracing Are You Being Served and obsolete computers, 604 has that same thread running through it. Emotional Coldness who’s mam’s made sure it’s wrapped up warm.

Often overlooked is the quality of the Tron’s lyrics, run through with a degree of bitchiness that Kim Gordon would not dye for (here again, the stance "I don’t feel anything – honest") and a playful take on ambisexuality that neither flaunts nor flinches.
604 is a fine debut, although feeling familiar from the long run-up to its release. Ladytron work effectively through a range of cruel but fascinating experiments on their themes, but it would be a brave band who’d attempt to pull another sixteen faces from the same whip. The ironic question is: what do the futurists do when their future arrives?

Not, perhaps, an album to cherish, but certainly one to enjoy the act of consumption with.

TRACK LISTING:
MuTron
Discotrax
Another Breakfast With You
The Way That I Found You
CSKA Sofia
Pacoi
Commodore Rock
Zmeyka
Playgirl
I'm with the Pilots
This is Our Sound
He Took Her To A Movie
Laughing Cavalier
Ladybird
Jet Age
Skools Out

604 is released on the 26th March.
The single "The Way That I Found You" is reviewed here