Ladytron - 604

Is this what we once imagined the future would sound like? On 604 Liverpool-based synth-pop collective Ladytron show all the electronic hallmarks of 1980, only without the "New Dawn of Technology" neurosis. Remember in those days how man feared the totalitarian march of the machine? How we worried that our friends might be electric? That our minds might be toys? That video would kill the radio star? That human labor would be redundant and we'd all be reduced to a Mao-suited existence in some morose metropolis? OK, so 604 does contain a few Marxist nursery rhymes (sung by stern Bulgarian female vocalist Mira Aroyo) but it also contains a version of the theme tune to '70s sit-com "Are You Being Served" (sung sweetly by the kittenish "Bond girl" voice of Helen Marnie). Ladytron's inspired, accessible electro-pop is where latter-day, Tarwater-style Krautrock meets the melodic appeal of the Human League, the Pet Shop Boys and Abba, with just a little bit of the sociosexual commentary of Black Box Recorder thrown in for good measure. Gary Numan was never as much fun as this.