However exciting the recent new Merseyside explosion has been (and it's largely been great, no question), with the possible exception of Ladytron there's not been much in the way of quality electronica-based music coming from Liverpool of late.
So the arrival of OTAKU NO DENKI is timely, as their debut album "The Future Played Backwards" (co-produced by ex-La's/ Lightning Seeds man Paul Hemmings) suggests this Scouse trio have a penchant for low-key, highly melodic and evocative encounters of the predominantly instrumental, electronic kind.
This being Liverpool, Otaku do actually have firm links with the bands at the epicentre of the new Scouse pop hierarchy, as one of their members is Chris McCabe (brother of The Zutons' frontman Dave McCabe), but that's largely irrelevant as Otaku create an evocative soundworld all their own here.
"The Future Played Backwards" consists of 22 virtually entirely instrumental tracks, mostly concise and snappy, though even the few tracks that stray much beyond the 3 minute mark rarely outstay their welcome.Indeed, intriguing opener "Craft, Design And Technology" immediately gets your attention, coming across as early OMD meets Kraftwerk, with the occasional Warp texture thrown in for good measure.
Much of what follows is equally thought-provoking and fraught with possbility. At times, the album embraces understated, analogue-based workouts like the warm, farty synths of "My First Telescope" or the lovely, Charity shop electronica of "Curiosity" and often sounds truly fragile and beautiful, like on the mellifluous and airy "The Way The Future Was" or on the dislocated, but attractive "Chimera In The Hybernarium", which reminded this writer a little of Bill Nelson's earlier ambient experiments like on the "Sounding The Ritual Echo" album.
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However, even when the album takes on a stranger, challenging hue, it still stimulates. To this end, try tracks like "Del", which is slow, brooding and eerily melodic or "Dope Head", where a haunting guitar line chimes in tandem with buzzy synths and a cowbell peps up the rhythm track. "Tower," meanwhile, is arguably even better: a brooding, monolithic slab of sound driven on by dark, funky beats. Very good indeed.
Admittedly the lads do lose the plot on occasion - "Senning" is touched uneasily by the hand of Aphex and "Cave Prayer"s wigged-out percussive doodling is closer in spirit to 23 Skidoo or early, impenetrable Cabaret Voltaire than any more familiar reference here - but even these set-pieces are curiously affecting and are usually followed by cool tracks like the robo-Kraftwerkian "Calculators" or the shimmering "My First Telescope", so nothing really hangs around long enough to leave a permenent bad taste in the mouth.
"The Future Played Backwards", then, is an excellent start by an understated, open-minded trio who are coming at the new Merseyside scene from an entirely different angle. They're about moods, presence and looking inwardly rather than the brash, extroverted song-based wares of their peers, but in these secretively capable hands that's definitely a good thing. Listen out for them.
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