Beyond Planets - Naked Lunch

Miss the burning white-heat of cutting edge late 70's sci-fi and electronica? Think that life went downhill once computers got smaller than a room and synths didn't come in kits? Then you are in for a treat with Naked Lunch as Beyond Planets has clearly been airdropped in from some part of the curiously English 80's goth/electronic sound that everyone else had left well alone.

What we have here is simple beats, simple electronic instrumentation, and simple song construction that combines into a surprisingly meaty mix of driven, powerful sound. There are no tricks, nothing is that flashy or overplayed, and that makes tracks like Glow and Weekend Behaviour all the more hypnotic and compelling. It's has a nod to Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark without being as poppy, the guitars have a touch of Sigue Sigue Sputnik to them whilst being more of a background wash than an overdriven foreground noise, and it is doesn't try to modernise itself as they clearly know that sometimes less can very much be more. It also surprisingly doesn't sound like an attempt at false-retro, it's just a band that has found it's thing and has been perfecting it while mostly ignoring whatever else has been going on as it would just get in the way.