Warm Math

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The influence of sounds produced in the 1980s, a period which, upon its passing, was almost instantly cast as redundant by those who supposedly know these things, has crept into leftfield music in recent years, reaching a premature nadir with the coming - and swift going - of the electroclash scene last year. Ignoring the predictable mortality of any fledgling movement which has had its gene pool tampered with by style magazines, synthesised sound has come full circle, with some of the more adventurous protagonists within electronic music tiring of the influx of uninspired digital tinkering, and regressing to the analogue as a way of pushing forward.

EU, a duo from St Petersburg in Russia, are a case in point. Some of the songs - not 'tracks' - on Warm Math sound alarmingly out of step with modern electronica to begin with, the squelchy, swooping synths calling to mind the music that would soundtrack the antiquated science/maths tutorials your teacher used to wheel the TV into the classroom for. Allow the subtleties of the EU sound to unravel however, and it becomes clear that they have conjured a unique, dreamy, almost naive melodicism, craftily leaning on the unfashionable past in order to fashion something far removed from 'cool', and perversely beautiful.

If anything, it is the occasions when 'Warm Math' starts to resemble a 21st century electronic music record that it tires slightly, and the usual unfavourable comparisons with what Aphex/BOC could produce in slumber start to spring to mind.

An unfair criticism, because this record is constantly engaging texturally if not always ultimately satisfying textually. If nothing else, 'Warm Math' broadens the stylistic scope of electronica in a way which suggests that the merits of this particular EU do not require a referendum.