The Presets

Upon entering HMV for a random browse, I noticed The Presets' album Beams, which had a sticker on proudly declaring:

"simply the finest electro album since Depeche Mode's 'Violator' ***** The Fly"

Being a fan of aforementioned Depeche Mode album, my immediate thought was "I'm, like, SO buying this."

I'd already heard one of their songs, called 'Are You The One', which was on a Digital Penetration compilation I'd bought earlier from Fopp Records in Manchester for about £5, which was nice. It was brand new at the time as well, that compilation, and I'd only bought it for the New Young Pony Club and Shit Disco songs on there - but it turned out to be a good buy all round.
Are You The One is very good - the beat is a bit angry and 'stompy'. 'Stompy' is a good thing, as you can see from my history of liking this sort of song.

The Presets are also signed to the Modular label, which is home to Whitey, Van She and the recently-signed-but-ace New Young Pony Club, along with the ace Cut Copy, the ace MSTRKRFT, the ace Chromeo and not-so-ace Wolfmother (they're good remixed though).
In short, their record label is pretty ace. So points for Coolness By Association!

So in summary, I can say that I'm loving their album, pretty much all very good, fairly harsh electro numbers - in the 'electric guitar and a real band' strain of electro, rather than this House Music nonsense which seems to be doing the rounds at the moment.

One of the tracks, Girls and the Sea, though on this album, was also previously available on an EP of the same name, described by the record label as 'An incredibly special and beautiful EP. Every song on this is crafted indie electro perfection'. So there you go.
Download: The Presets - Girl and the Sea
Download: The Presets - Are You The One (Simian Mobile Disco mix)
This Simian mix doesn't actually have much in the way of Vocals of the original song, which is a bit of a bitch really.
I already had it on my PC for some reason, Dunno why.

Visit: The Presets site on Modular Records, which includes videos and a few streaming songs etc
Whore: The Presets on MySpace

Buy: The Presets - Beams at Amazon.co.uk