Prophet information

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.

Picture copyright JM Bertin.