Information Society
_hello world
Hakatak
The days of Pure Energy aren’t quite over for this dance club fave from the late ’80s. INSOC set a standard for dance music with Star Trek audio samples; the disembodied Spockness of “Pure Energy” still brings back fond memories of those days. The band reformed in 2006 and hasn’t had an album out in seven years, but their latest project _hello world is still as exciting as their original releases.
They still love those samples, and on “Where were you” they come from some 1950’s weepie of a film, but once we pass that little quirk the music is still urgent, beat heavy and dancy. There’s even lyrics that are worth hearing, “Where were you when I was crying?” isn’t something a guy would pop out, but here it makes perfect sense. “Get Back” is a powerful EDM track with throbbing bass and some minor drops and then “Dancing With Strangers” keeps on a similar beat track but dives into much darker lyrics, there’s tribal feeling on this track and it feels more “Australian bush” than “Club 54.” They do include a cover, INSOC gets Devo’s Gerald Casale to drop by for a sped up cover of “Beautiful World”. Overall, I like this collection, its close enough to the original to keep you dancing, but there are enough new ideas here to excite. Dance on, boys, dance on!
