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The Presets

By: Julia Simon

“I was stuck in a hotel room on Sunset Boulevard; the city inspired me to write this ode the modern male: in all his weak, pathetic, shameful, womanizing glory,” the Presets’ Julian Hamilton says of “Kitty In the Middle” off his band’s full-length debut, Beams. Joined by Kim Moyes, this Aussie duo swirls synthetic, echoing pulses for racing down Sunset Strip amidst a phantasmagoric slurring of stoplights and neon signs.

Beams posits the Presets as the prototypical modern male: They’ve got robotic electro-riffs (“Bad Up Your Betterness”), drippy beats (“Beam”), and debaucherous song titles (“I Go Hard, I Go Home”), all of which forecast wanton escapades. And while the Presets sex up Mouse on Mars’ slinky house sensibilities, they’ll never admit to being suave. The pair met in college while studying classical music, and according to the Presets’ lore, they were drawn to each other’s fashion styles (Hamilton in raver garb; Moyes a vest- and corduroy-clad ‘old man’). When they started making music, though, nothing sounded quite like “Charly”-era Prodigy or nerdy, innocuous pop. In that vast divide, you’ll find the Presets chalking up mad downtown cred, and possibly soundtracking the next Brett Easton Ellis adaptation.

The Presets tour dates:

4/20, Toronto, CA (Opera House)* 4/21, Chicago, IL (Metro)*4/22, Minneapolis, MN (First Avenue)*4/25, Vancouver, CA (Commodore Ballroom)*4/26, Seattle, WA (Neumos)*4/27, Portland, OR (Berbatis Pan)*4/28, San Francisco, CA (Mezzanine)*4/30, San Diego, CA (The Beauty Bar)5/1, Los Angeles, CA (Spaceland)5/2, Los Angeles, CA (Safari Sam’s)

(*w/Ladytron)

The Presets official site