The Presets

An electro duo from down under that sound like Suicide and The Faint with just enough David Byrne/Talking Heads to make them strangely intimate.

"Drifting through twisting drum patterns and rolling, atmospheric blips, Beams paints a broad brush stroke, where simple deliveries meet sleazy electro and floor-stompers."- Rolling Stone Australia

This could be the year for the Aussies. Driving out some of 2006's most anticipated releases, from Sia to Wolfmother to The Grates, the sound from down under is making its way stateside. Leading the invasion is Sydney's premiere label, Modular Records, whose electronic darlings, The Presets, will be releasing their debut this spring. With enough range that they'll appeal to fans of class acts like Nine Inch Nails, The Faint, Soft Cell, and Daft Punk, The Presets' sound is equal parts invention and dance-floor friendliness while retaining a special flavor of their own. The Presets have a proclivity for surreal imagery and outlandish drama. You just wait and see. The Presets are Julian Hamilton (production/vocals/keyboards) and Kimberley Moyes (production/drums/programming). Trained artists in every sense, the pair met studying theory and music performance at Sydney's esteemed Conservatorium of Music. In a sea of squares, the two stood out like jet-black ink blots on a page. Music composition by day, dancing to the Pet Shop Boys, New Order and Acid House by night, they were perfectly primed to create a seamless combination of high and low culture to create a genre all their own. Beams is the result. Beams is a twelve-track ranging from cinematic instrumentals to spiky electronic pop to heavy rock. The duo defy categorization in their recorded work, exceeding expectation above and beyond in their sweat-drenched live shows, and release videos and artwork as beautiful as they are twisted. The songs range from "Girl and the Sea" which boasts pristine melancholic vocals laid on top of shimmering synths to "Are You The One" which Julian claims is "English Soccer Hoodlum meets Brazilian House Music". "Down Down Down" is a fist-pumping anthem that sounds like a futuristic machine war. The Presets raise the bar with the title track, "Beams", tactically positioned as the last song on the record. It is a testimony to their musical gifts; a beautiful classical music composition that is cinematic and smart. Intrigued? A cursory glance at the cover art for Beams suggests a super-staged and unreal world, unparalleled since the cocaine castle fantasies of Fleetwood Mac sleeves from the late 70's. Not to suggest that The Presets are anything other than modern. Ladies and Gentleman, without further ado, the futuristic beast that is Beams!

The Presets are a pair of avant-garde Aussies who, while forging a musical path that wouldn't be unfamiliar to acts like Daft Punk, Nine Inch Nails, and the Faint, don't mind dragging disco along for the ride. Julian Hamilton (production, keyboards, vocals) and Kimberley Moyes (production, drums, programming) met in the early '90s as students at Sydney's Conservatorium of Music. Both were there to study classical music, but as they delved into the great composers, neither could forget an extracurricular love of '80s pop: the Smiths, Pet Shop Boys, Björk, New Order. So instead of abandoning their passion for music's lighter side, they bonded over it, composing music at school by day and dancing to acid house by night. Eventually, they joined the band Prop together, cranking out several albums of experimental instrumental music that won them critical plaudits across Australia. The Presets were born as an offshoot of Prop -- when Hamilton and Moyes wanted to remix a track with harder electronic edges, they did so under the Presets moniker.

In 2003, with a distinctively spiky disco-dipped sound and several years of collaboration boosting them, they released a demo; the influential Aussie label Modular wasted no time adding the Presets to its roster. A first EP, the relatively hard-driving Blow Up, featuring guitar work from Silverchair's Daniel Johns, arrived the same year as the duo first hit the Australian stage circuit. In 2004, the mellower Girl and the Sea, whose title track was featured on the TV show The O.C., was released, and 2005's Down Down Down, the disc that established the Presets as a band worthy of Euro buzz, followed. With momentum on their side, the Presets also released Beams in Australia in 2005; in April of 2006, a month after it found favor with electro-freak-loving British fans, Beams lit a path into U.S. record stores. ~ Tammy La Gorce, All Music Guide