MIT

by Jim Merrett

Do androids dance to electric bleeps?

"For the album, the dancefloor napalm of their initial single releases is jettisoned in favour of something much more interesting – minimal yet dense, it is both primal and the sound of the 22nd century."

Not much to do with the New England university of the same name, other than both deploy similar levels of computer wizardry. Namedropped by the likes of Klaxons for well over a year now, the current crop of electro-tinged UK post-punk outfits are at best a gateway into MIT’s altogether darker world. Their Cologne is bound to get Kraftwerk, NEU! and – more recently – Digitalism charting high in back-story join the dots, but their debut ‘Coda’ scores better than last year’s ‘Idealism’ for a fistful of reasons. It’s more honest, organic, forward-thinking, effortless and Germanic than their Daft Punk-aping peers.

There’s the sense that LCD Soundsystem’s ‘Losing My Edge’ could’ve been penned with the three members of MIT in mind. Their first ever gig was supporting Peaches in their hometown, their second was at nearing legendary London opinion-forming night White Heat. But – save single ‘Goodbook’ – instead of swapping their own language for the commercial advantages English offers, they’ve stuck to their guns. The German shouting creates an other voice that mesmerises like both Sígur Rós and Boredoms do in their own separate ways. Painfully hip, and here’s the killer bit, without trying, it is almost as though all strands and reference points have lead us here.

For the album, the dancefloor napalm of their initial single releases is jettisoned in favour of something much more interesting – minimal yet dense, it is both primal and the sound of the 22nd century. Imagine Phillip K Dick unravelled into ambient punk and you’re about there.

Driven by two sets of drums and a further drum machine at their core, the tone is at moments brutal, forboding and tribal, with a nod to the unconventional musical arrangement aired by Battles last year. Guaranteed the likes of Simian Mobile Disco-architect and producer to the stars James Ford are frantically taking notes. A seminal album, mark our words.

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