The Presets

Australian experimentalists The Presets pursue sonic directions that echo Daft Punk, Nine Inch Nails, and the Faint, yet they readily weave disco into their approach. Early in the 1990s Julian Hamilton, who oversees production, keyboards, and vocals, crossed paths with Kimberley Moyes, who manages production, drums, and programming, while the pair studied classical music at Sydney's Conservatorium of Music. Although immersed in the great composers, both retained a strong attachment to 1980s pop acts such as the Smiths, Pet Shop Boys, Björk, and New Order. Rather than setting aside this lighter affinity, they cultivated it together, writing pieces during daytime classes and immersing themselves in acid-house nights. They later entered the band Prop, which issued multiple albums of experimental instrumental music that earned widespread critical praise throughout Australia. The Presets emerged from Prop when Hamilton and Moyes chose to remix one track with sharper electronic contours, adopting the Presets name for that project.

In 2003, after several years of joint work had sharpened their distinctly jagged, disco-infused style, the duo submitted a demo that promptly secured them a place on the influential Australian imprint Modular. Their debut EP, the comparatively aggressive Blowup, appeared that same year and included guitar contributions from Silverchair's Daniel Johns; it also coincided with the duo's first appearances on Australian stages. The gentler 2004 release Girl and the Sea followed, its title track placed on the television series The O.C., while 2005 brought Down Down Down, the recording that first drew substantial European attention. Capitalizing on that growing profile, the Presets issued Beams domestically in 2005; after the album gained traction among British electro enthusiasts in March 2006, it reached American stores the following month. The duo returned in 2008 with the darker, more polished Apocalypso, which became the first dance album to claim the ARIA Award for Album of the Year. Their third full-length, Pacifica, surfaced in summer 2012 and peaked at number three on the Australian charts before a nationwide headline tour and several U.S. festival slots in 2013. The buoyant single "No Fun" surfaced the next year together with an accompanying remix EP. The driving "Do What You Want" appeared in December 2017, joined two months later by "14U+14ME," both preceding the Presets' next album.