At the start of the month, The Presets dropped one of the most anticipated Australian albums of the year in HI VIZ. It’s the duo’s first new record in six years and has seen them soar to the levels of popularity they enjoyed after the release of their game-changing 2008 LP Apocalypso, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary back in April.

This naturally begs the question as to which of the two LPs holds the strongest claim to being The Presets’ best album — a question we’re going to attempt to field with a side-by-side comparison. Let’s rave.

---

Apocalypso (2008)

PERSONNEL

The classic set-up of Julian Hamilton on vocals, keyboards and synths alongside Kim Moyes on drums, percussion, keyboards and beats. Everything you hear on this record was written, produced and played by them — which may not seem like an outlandish fact, but it’s quite significant when one considers just how many moving parts factor into this record.

LEAD SINGLE

‘My People’ dropped in the first few days of December 2007 and arrived with all the subtlety of a swinging hammer. The monstrous war-march of a song has since gone on to define the band’s career — it’s become their signature song and their most recognisable number.

This is particularly interesting when one considers how seemingly anti-commercial the song is — a red-level, minor-key diatribe that uses easily-decoded metaphor to stand with immigrants against hatred, war and xenophobia. It’s almost 11 years old in its own right and there are dance artists worldwide still trying to catch up with the song’s final build and drop, which prophetically revolves around the mantra: “It feels so good.”

You can’t fight the feeling.

OPENING TRACK

It’s been said that the band chose Apocalypso for a title on account of its suggest portmanteau of “apocalypse” and “calypso,” a yin-yang contrast between destruction and celebration. If one takes this at face value, then there is no better scene-setter than ‘Kicking and Screaming’.

Rising from the ashes of an incessant kick-snare with synths that recall a malfunctioning robot, Hamilton enlists his distinctive yelp to go stark raving mad. “I’m gonna cover myself in mud!” he cries. “I’mma deliver!” That he does — the song sails through ecstatic highs and burbling lows to create something intense but entirely electric in its energy.

CLOSING TRACK

‘Anywhere’ is the longest song on Apocalypso, allowing for the record to slowly burn out into the night. It’s a curious move, which makes the play-out of the record itself all the more intriguing.

The six-minute track is a minimalist take on progressive house, indebted to the likes of Underworld and Leftfield. It’s sound in structure, but lacks a payoff — there’s no real punch beyond the melodic shift that brings in the titular refrain.

While one could argue a lack of a big release is the point, it doesn’t take into consideration its stark contrast with the rest of the album. Ultimately, ‘Anywhere’ feels antithetical and inconsequential — if any deviating track should have been used as the final number, it should have been the crystalline ballad ‘If I Know You’.

HIGHLIGHTS

Speaking of which, ‘If I Know You’ remains one of the single greatest songwriting achievements in the history of the band. Feeling like a spiritual successor to earlier single ‘Girl and the Sea’, the song recalls Bronski Beat and interpolates a Split Enz reference to their own uncharacteristic ballad, ‘I Hope I Never’.

“While many albums and songs from 2008 have not aged well over the last decade, the lion’s share of Apocalypso has.”

It’s rare to find a moment of sombre tranquility within the Presets echelon – especially sandwiched between more aggressive numbers like ‘Eucalyptus’ and ‘Together’. Perhaps, then, this is why it stands out so significantly — and has continued to do so in the intervening years since its release.

Other standout moments come in the form of the anthemic ‘This Boy’s in Love’, which adds further arrows to the band’s quiver insofar as thematic depth and texture are concerned; as well as the vocoder-heavy strut of ‘A New Sky’, a criminally-underrated track that never got the love it deserved.

SOUND

There’s a lot going on within the sonic confines of Apocalypso. It’s a pastiche of house, techno, hi-NRG, krautrock and electro-pop that could have only come from the collective minds of Hamilton and Moyes. While many albums and songs from 2008 have not aged well over the last decade, the lion’s share of Apocalypso has.

Andy Warhol once said “You have to hang on in periods when your style isn’t popular — because if it’s good, it’ll come back.” The Presets never adhered to any rules, guidelines or trends — they simply kept pushing their stone up the hill, so when they reached the top it rolled down the other side and crushed all in its path.

Apocalypso is a time capsule, but it’s also a still-evolving work of art, and there’s a lot to be admired about that.

---

HI VIZ (2018)

PERSONNEL

Hamilton, Moyes and a cast of thousands. Never before have the floodgates been quite as open as they’ve been for the band on HI VIZ, who have primarily done everything themselves in the past.

The album’s impressive guestlist includes collaborations and contributions from Alison Wonderland, Kirin J Callinan, DZ Deathrays’ Shane Parsons, DMA’S, Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears, Melbourne DJ Mike Callander and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Choir among others.

LEAD SINGLE

Much like ‘My People’, ‘Do What You Want’ preceded the album late in the previous year. Much like ‘My People’, ‘Do What You Want’ changed the landscape as far as The Presets’ music is concerned.

Rambunctious, free-wheeling and defiant, the song latches onto a simple but incredibly effective mantra and rides it all the way. It’s got the brisk, four-on-the-floor groove of an AC/DC song and the mosh-starting energy of a pub rock anthem — something that hasn’t coursed through the veins of The Presets in quite this way since ‘Down Down Down’ back in 2005 — and even then, it doesn’t hit the same heights that ‘Do What You Want’ does.

It’s a new standard-bearer as far as Presets singles are concerned — and the ones before it were generally excellent across the board.

OPENING TRACK

You can interpret the opening cacophony of ‘Knuckles’ as some sort of robot uprising — one not all too dissimilar from ‘Kicking and Screaming’ — or as text-painting of the band rebooting after six years between records. However you cut it, it’s pretty glorious to see the band make such an entrance on the album.

A glitched-out spiral of chopped-and-screwed samples, a left-of-centre horn section and a flutter of tweaked synths — it’s a bumpy ride, but it’s an exhilarating one all the same.

CLOSING TRACK

At a full seven minutes, ‘Until the Dark’ is the longest song to ever feature on a Presets album. It’s a living, breathing embodiment of the saying ‘rave to the grave’ — a fuller, clearer realisation of ‘Anywhere’s progressive house ambitions. Mike Callander is a co-writer on the song, which may be why the song stylistically resembles an extended remix in a lot of ways.

Hamilton has used his vocals as an instrument in a song’s arrangement in the past — see ‘I Go Hard, I Go Home’ for perhaps the finest example of this — but here it takes on an even more aggressive, abrasive edge. In a way, ‘Until the Dark’ feels like The Presets destroying a monument of themselves — it’s a liberating release, leading one to admire how far they’ve come and how much they still have yet to prove.

HIGHTLIGHTS

Where to begin? Everywhere you look on HI VIZ, The Presets are exploring new corners of their musical spectrum with a myriad of successes to speak of.

Take ‘Downtown Shutdown’ the album’s third single, which sees the band borrowing equal amounts from Chic, dance-punk and afrobeat to forge an unexpected and joyous dance party. The aforementioned St. Paul’s Lutheran Church Choir bring a joyful refrain to the song, which bounces around the walking bass-line and the strident funk guitar added into the mix. It’s a newfound niche for The Presets, and it works exceptionally well.

“HI VIZ is a synaesthesia dream, an amazing technicolor dream-rave unto the joy fantastic.”

Elsewhere, there’s the sweaty thud of ‘Tools Down’ which seamlessly gives way to the joy-fantastic rave of ‘Feel Alone’ quite literally creating the centrepiece of the record. There’s also the shouty pop of ‘Out Of Your Mind’, featuring Alison Wonderland belligerently taking lead vocals, as well as the unfathomably catchy ‘Martini’, which locks into a warbling synth rhythm and holds tight to it with impressive results.

Essentially, there are no real bad eggs among the dozen — not even the DMA’s track.

SOUND

Much like Apocalypso reflected its name through its music, there’s the same degree of text painting as far as HI VIZ is concerned. It’s bright, bold and vividly colourful — hell, even the fact that the title is all-caps is a reflection on the music.

You’re immediately drawn to the neon-tinged patterns, the rainbow streaks and the paint splatters that accompany every huge drop. It’s a synaesthesia dream, an amazing technicolor dream-rave unto the joy fantastic.

At a time when Hamilton and Moyes could have easily phoned in a new record and relied solely on old tricks, they have intentionally gone out of their way to challenge themselves and insist on creating provocative and quintessential art. They come out swinging and don’t drop their dukes until everything is said and done — and even then, you can just imagine them still raring to go another round as they reluctantly put their tools down.

The Final Verdict

Perhaps it’s the freshness of it, or perhaps its having some proximity and perspective on Apocalypso, but HI VIZ really does feel like the best album that The Presets have ever put their name to.

It’s a fully-realised and excellently-realised piece — not that Apocalypso isn’t, but it definitely feels as though the band have moved past it and eclipsed it. Long may the party rage.

—

David James Young writes, podcasts and does what he wants. He also tweets at @DJYwrites.