Total Magique

Not to be confused with any of the other dozen-or-so bands associated with furry carnivores, the Montreal art students sharing a label with the Fiery Furnaces are back with their sophomore album Total Magique. Once again, they combine analog synths, thick guitar buzz, gritty basslines and hard hitting beats with call-and-response yelps in a collage of sound. If anything, the boys have improved on their formula by beefing up their rock chops and tightening up their hooks. Apart from a fuzzier organ sound, less drum machine, and bigger, grimier sounding guitars and drums, there's not much that distinguishes the songs on this album from Non-Stop Je Te Plie en Deux, and that's really not a bad thing. They have a good thing going with their electro-punk dance-jams. There's the same head bobbing Tubeway Army approach on cuts like "Coconut Nights," with power chords and synth-bass driving the party into a throbbing nocturnal frenzy. Similarly, "Magique" finds the boys screaming a dance anthem in their second language, while "Teenage, Bats & Anthropology" notes the rowdy antics of teenagers in a fist pumping jamboree. There may be a lot of other indie scenesters who are trying to persuade crowds to clap and dance, but few that do so with such fervor. Good luck keeping still while cranking this one at high volumes.