LA Spark

Opening with a single repeated note beamed from an analogue basement studio in Shoreditch, London, Wrangler's debut album 'LA Spark' reclaims lost technology to make new themes for the modern world. Wrangler consists of Stephen Mallinder, best known for his pioneering work with Cabaret Voltaire, Phil Winter of Tunng and Lone Taxidermist, plus the founder of Memetune studios and synth obsessive Benge. His studio's synth-rammed walls have created an environment where sounds are ripped from a golden era of analogue electronic music to create forward-looking, new music. Wrangler formed in the wires of Memetune - a post-LCD, Factory Floor-ed electronic funk machine with VHS tape distortion in its eyes but also capable of sleekness and beauty in the stripped back beats. The tracks range from the satellite bleep and lonely synth melody of 'Theme From Wrangler' to the alien carnival rhythms of 'Modern World' and the ambient 'Peace And Love' (originally recorded for Tate Modern's Summer 2012 programme 'Tweet-Me-Up'). In between there's 'Lava Land' - all masked, half-gargoyle vocals and primitive drum machines; the gliding, noir and neon of the title-track 'La Spark' and urgent, pulsing floor-filler of 'Harder'. There are ghosts and echoes of Mallinder's previous work in Cabaret Voltaire in these songs, especially in the vocals and lyrics, which run like his own internal movie. But the Cabs era it recalls is the unfairly neglected 1983 - 1985, when they released the likes of The Crackdown and Micro-Phonies.