The Presets Apocalypso

Modular Recordings, 2008

- Roy Spencer

For Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes, life in The Presets was bonkers. Back-to-back tours of the world supporting The Rapture, Ladytron, and Soulwax saw them hitting the stage. Life on the road was hard. There was barely enough time to send a postcard back home to their folks in Oz, let alone make a new album.

“We were working our arses off,” says Julian. “We had a very clear idea of the music we wanted to make, but the life we were living meant everything was too hectic to find time to do it.”

A plan was hatched – get back to Australia, and decamp to the sleepy town of Bangalow, tucked away in New South Wales.

“We set up our studio on a farm,” says Kim. “It was the calm we needed. And that’s when Apocalypso began.”

This would be The Presets’ second album. A monster smash hit, clocking up triple platinum sales down-under, propelled by its mix of fierce electronica, politicised lyrics, and earworm melodies.

In their idyllic Australian farmstead ‘bubble’ they pushed themselves, and then channelled their broadest influences. Inspirations veered from the vocal cut-up techniques of pop merchants like Stock, Aitken & Waterman, to classy French house. Then they pinged from the electro boogie of Prince, to the vocal delivery of Joy Division and PiL.

“We didn’t worry too hard about whether or not things were ‘cool’,” says Julian. “We were just having fun and enjoying it. And if it felt good, we did it.”

Their rural retreat was brief, but it set that album in motion. Life back on the road beckoned, and Apocalypso would be completed in any spare moment they could find.