★★★½
Art vs Science’s game plan was always a simple one – hard-hitting, big-business dance music with none of the autopilot corner-cutting that contemporary perpetrators of the genre are stigmatised with.
Everything you hear is built up, torn down and hurled into the stratosphere by the band’s core trio – which subsequently means it’s rightly theirs to bend, twist and reshape as they please.
Off The Edge arrives some four years after Art vs Science’s eponymous debut – itself a further defiance of the supposed ground rules laid out by their prior material. Some hallmarks remain – Dan Williams’ gasping hi-hats leading a sped-up roller-disco charge, or the authoritative honk of a low-end synth – but change is afoot once again as they embrace their inner Talking Heads (‘When It’s All Over’), their inner P-Funk (‘You Got To Stop’) and their inner Flight Of The Conchords (‘Bongo Plan’ – no, seriously, it’s uncanny).
If you’ve ever found yourself lost in a moment with Art vs Science – be it singing along in the car or bunny-hopping in time with thousands of others at some scorching festival – you’ll easily find yourself drawn back in with this album. After all, we’re in this together.
Art vs Science’sOff The Edge Of The Earth And Into Forever, Foreveris available through Magellanic/MGM.
