GOOSE

The way Goose see it, there’s no point repeating yourself. They’d already done the noisy dance-music-with-rock-attitude thing on their 2006 debut, Bring It On. Upon its release, the barking synths, shouty vocals and red-line energy levels chimed with the Justice/Ed Banger scene. In Benelux - that’s Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg - it established them as a major name. In the wake of Bring It On they released a string of killer remixes, including I Know Kung Fu by Shitdisco and She’s My Man by Scissor Sisters. At the same time a series of incendiary gigs established them as a serious live proposition. In 2008, they headlined the dance tent at the Pukkelpop festival, a slot occupied by Pendulum this year. “It was really special to feel so welcome,” says frontman Mickael Karkousse talking about the latter. “The energy level a big crowd can give you is mindblowing. It feels like you could go on and on without sleeping. I can imagine it becomes an addiction.”

But not so addictive that Goose were prepared to do it all over again on Synrise. “Making the first album we wanted to get out of our hometown, travel, see the world and party for most of the week,” says guitarist Dave Martijn. “That’s what Bring It On reflects: an uptempo, happy, hands-in-the-air experience. The thing is, everyone is doing that now. I think people expected us to make an even harder record this time round, but we tried a few songs like that and it just didn’t do anything for us.” Karkousse adds: “It was like buying the same car, but a better one. And we wanted to try something different.” Very different, it turns out.

On Synrise the band look to '70s space disco such as Automat and '80s movie soundtracks, names such as Philip Glass, Giorgio Moroder and Vangelis. The end result is more than the sum of these parts: it’s an album of dance tunes with pop song structures. It opens with the title track, Synrise, a jet streaming soundscape of Moroder-like synth arpeggios that build and build to a guest appearance from Peaches, who hums the hook. The gravelly vocals and menacing digital bass on Words could be easily be a vintage Chemical Brothers track, while the spiralling atmospheres on In Cars combine that trance influence with some Klaxons-style vocals. Meanwhile, lead single Can’t Stop Me Now starts with a snarling riff, then silvery strings slide in and the track lifts off into effortlessly cool but unmistakably pop territory. It’s hugely varied, epic stuff, clubby, yet poppy, starting bright and ending dark. The cherry on top is the artwork, which is designed by Storm Thorgerson, the man responsible for Pink Floyd’s iconic Dark Side Of The Moon cover.

The band — Mickael Karkousse (vocals/synth), Dave Martijn (guitar/synth), Tom Coghe (bass/synth) and Bert Libeert (drums) — started working on Synrise in early 2009. It was recorded in the oldest studio in Belgium, Jet Studios in Brussels. Artists who’ve worked there previously include The Rolling Stones and Edith Piaf. One of the main attractions was a room designed to function as a natural echo chamber. “This time we really wanted to record as much as we could live,” says Karkousse. “That’s why we needed a big live room with a good sound. Live drums, live synths. We did it all really old school.” The pair are keen to emphasise that nothing has been cut’n’pasted from one part of a song to another, as is standard practice on dance tracks these days. Martijn explains why: “When an old analogue synth is building up a sound, if you cut into that, it sounds really unnatural. Everything in dance music these days is so cut up with Ableton, with effects on everything and loads of plug-ins. We wanted to get away from all that.”

Doing it the old fashioned way was all about being honest. “I don’t think fans care how an album is made,” says Karkousse. “But it was about being honest with ourselves. It was a challenge to ourselves to record the album as live as possible. Like how Depeche Mode would have done it on Speak & Spell.” To keep themselves on the straight and narrow they listened to a cassette of Depeche Mode’s 1981 debut in the car on the way to the studio. Although the retro approach was difficult, it proved fruitful. “It was definitely harder doing it this way, but it took us to a higher level, both in terms of understanding our instruments and making music in general,” says Martijn. Karkousse adds: “Sometimes it’s hard to be honest. Sometimes it’s the hardest thing.” But sometimes you just have to be truthful with yourself or there’s no point.

As it happens, early ’90s trance is enjoying a renaissance among UK DJs such as Joe & Will Ask, but that’s not where Goose were coming from on a track such as In Cars. Bring It On was all about fun, which is why it was written predominantly in major keys. This time they wanted to make an album with more emotional depth, hence in was written entirely in minor keys, as most trance is. “The reason we did that was because m