Boasting ‘maximum electronic rock ‘n’ roll, Luke Haines returns to synth pop with a very dark message. “Information of a possible nuclear strike against this country has been received”, begins the album’s fictional broadcast from the BBC. Yet it all sounds rather foreboding, and the mood is not helped by some dark, metallic electro from the analogue synths the multi-talented Haines has at his disposal. As you might have guessed, it is a hark back to the 1980s when the likes of Cabaret Voltaire, John Foxx and The Human League were blazing a trail for disconcertingly intimate pop music, and Haines here does nothing to shake the fear. In fact he stokes it through tracks like ‘Cold Field Morning Under Bliss’, while reserving a nice line in straight faced humour through ‘Test Card Forever’. ‘Camden Borough Council’, meanwhile, does offer a bit more in the way of consolation. If you like the starker forms of 1980s electronica then this will do nicely for you, especially as Haines uses plenty of originality in his outlook too – no full-on pastiche from him. It is yet another album of his to change the game, and is one to surprise your friends with!
4 out of 5
Reviewed by Ben Hogwood
{http://soundcloud.com/cherryredrecords/sets/luke-haines-this-is-the-bbc-british-nuclear-bunkers}
