This is the debut album of London-based band Filthy Dukes and put simply its an electronic stormer. Taking time off from their remixing duties for a number of top acts, the guys have created an album that is likely to be the best piece of electronica in 2009. Opening track and next single ‘This Rhythm’ enlists the vocal skills of Samuel Dust (Late Of The Pier) to carry this pulsating dance track along. It’s pure fun, pure dance, pure thrill.

‘Elevator’ has a doomed hammond opening before it opens out into more conventional dance territory. However, it also has a brief set of decent lyrics with vocals by To My Boy which eventually lift it out of mediocrity. ‘What Happens Next’ with the voice of Foreign Islands drives on relentlessly and offers a tad more musical adventure, while ‘Messages’ (vocals by Tommy Sparks) lifts the adventure stakes higher, but it’s the the next track ‘Tupac Robot Club Rock’ that signals a gear change upwards of epic proportions.

Plastic Little is the vocal contributor to a song that has already become a dance floor hit and earned ’single of the week’ on BBC Radio 1 last November. Lyrically, it’s up there with the worst in this genre but since when have lyrics been of critical importance in dance music? There’s more than a touch of the Eminem’s (think ‘Losing It’) in the song where hip-hop has a leading role. ‘Nonsense In The Dark’ enlists the excellent vocal skills of Orlando Weeks (The Maccabees) in a song that manages to fuse dance and pop ballad very successfully.

‘Cul-De-Sac’ is a touch of electronic instrumental genius while ‘Light Skips Cross Heart’ with vocals by Tim Lawton is no less than an electronic ballad of epic proportions with a melody that could sink the battleship Bismark. ‘Don’t Fall Softly’ with Brandon Curtis on vocals sustains the quality with a well written track backed by a darker instrumental arrangement.

‘Twenty Six Hundred’ is pure, innovative, quality electronica which is followed by two more great vocal slower paced tracks in ‘Poison Ivy’ (vocals by frYars) and highly atmospheric, moving ‘Somewhere At Sea’ (vocals by Mauro Remiddi - Sunny Day Sets Fire).

4/5