The Magnificents - Year Of Explorers

The line between the synthetic and the synthesiser is practically invisible (hence the name, then - Ed). It's become impossible to tell if today's nu-rave-electro-pop-punk-spunkers actually give a shit or whether they just want their plook-ridden pusses splattered over the cover of NME. But The Magnificents are different. For starters, The Edinburgh quartet's second LP, Year Of Explorers, contains the head-pounding freakoid majesty of Ring Ring Oo Oo; a track so effortlessly contagious it'll rupture every artery as you're projected head first onto the dancefloor. Yet it's not all body-popping exuberance - this record is dripping in chaotic punk-fuelled charges that electrify like a break-dancing Joy Division hypnotised by epileptic strobe-lights. Pulsating with ear-splitting percussion and jerking riffs, tracks like the blistering Tiger Choir and the scathingly titled No Dialogue With Cunts gnaw on every aching limb with a rabid cannibalistic intent. Unlike a few of today's disco-infused scene seekers, The Magnificents have no murky lines – they're just really fucking good. [Billy Hamilton]